I love Emily in Paris. It’s a cute, quirky, easy-to-watch series on Netflix about a girl who moves to Paris to work in an agency as a social media manager.

It was Netflix’s most popular comedy series in 2020 with over 58 million households watching it within its first 28 days.

However, it’s the depiction of her job and the way they portray it, that many marketers take offense too. In a nutshell, it is totally unrealistic!

 

Why?

Let’s explore …

Growth on social takes more than a few selfies

You don’t just take a selfie, add a couple of hashtags and magically get hundreds of new followers or shares. Come on people!! Emily is running all over Paris taking selfies of her fabulous life and gaining thousands of fans in the process. Doesn’t work like that.

Her posts are just not great

Sorry but the posts are pretty lame. For a millennial, the captions are also corny and cringe-worthy. And the growth of followers after these posts is extremely unlikely

Major campaigns don’t just rely on social media

The so-called campaign meetings with clients are focused on social media which is not only a bad strategy but glamorises social to be something that it is not.

Buzzwords Like “Brand Awareness” and “Gorgeous Content” does not strategy make

A marketing strategy involves many pieces and using a few buzz words sounds cool, but it has no real foundation and it means nothing.

Unlimited Budget? Free influencer campaigns? We wish!

It seems Emily is the luckiest girl in marketing with major designers posting about her client’s ad hoc (without the client’s permission) to get a viral following. I doubt any agency o marketer has ever heard the words unlimited budget used. And since when did influencers work for free?

She’s missing reels, stories, video

Success on social need to extend further than a pretty picture or a selfie. It needs video content – reels, stories, lives….

On the flip side, one message I think is a positive one is around taking time out on weekends for your mental health. It’s the French way (apparently).

 

Remember it is just a TV show. It is fiction and so are the portrayals of these jobs. Don’t decide to be a social media manager based on this fictitious portrayal of the job. You’ll be sorely disappointed if you do.

 

 

Get help and advice to figure it all out with the In Marketing Conversation program.