{"id":67600,"date":"2026-07-10T13:52:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T05:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=67600"},"modified":"2026-07-10T13:52:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T05:52:59","slug":"these-asian-owned-la-restaurants-paid-influencers-to-promote-them-they-failed-to-deliver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=67600","title":{"rendered":"These Asian-owned LA restaurants paid influencers to promote them. They failed to deliver"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">It started with US$500 and a comped meal at Hollywood Thai.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">That is what the family-run restaurant in Los Angeles\u2019 Thai Town paid an influencer in exchange for a single social media post. When that post did not immediately materialise, the owners aired their frustrations on Instagram. The internet responded, roiling with online comments that publicly called out the influencer, who has more than 1.5 million followers on Instagram.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">There are few rules of engagement when it comes to family-run restaurants hiring social media personalities to post about them. A recent spate of clashes involving <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">influencers<\/span> and small businesses highlights the messiness and pitfalls of trying to survive in a fraught restaurant industry with little revenue to spare while navigating the hyper-saturated attention economy.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Some restaurateurs say social media influencers help spread the word and provide valuable marketing; others say it is hard to tell whether their posts result in new customers at all.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In recent months, some paying restaurants in Los Angeles say they have been professionally \u201cghosted\u201d, and the fallout has resulted in deleted accounts, threats from a purported lawyer, allegations of bought followers, and countless harassing comments left on creators\u2019 accounts.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-1qeofuq e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-bjn8wh e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The owner of Hollywood Thai in Los Angeles\u2019 Thai Town was left disappointed after an influencer allegedly didn\u2019t deliver agreed-upon content after receiving payment and free food. Photo: Los Angeles Times\/TNS\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/07\/09\/b384f98b-1694-4dda-a19d-03c6756df554_64f10534.jpg\" title=\"The owner of Hollywood Thai in Los Angeles\u2019 Thai Town was left disappointed after an influencer allegedly didn\u2019t deliver agreed-upon content after receiving payment and free food. Photo: Los Angeles Times\/TNS\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1bj5zno e1gf69pb1\">The owner of Hollywood Thai in Los Angeles\u2019 Thai Town was left disappointed after an influencer allegedly didn\u2019t deliver agreed-upon content after receiving payment and free food. Photo: Los Angeles Times\/TNS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-1qeofuq e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-bjn8wh e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Saut\u00e9ed clams with Thai basil and chilli sauce (left) served with pad Thai Sukhothai and Thai iced milk tea at Hollywood Thai. Photo: Los Angeles Times\/TNS\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/07\/09\/6fc47953-48f9-455a-9416-07d8f4f52e24_64f10534.jpg\" title=\"Saut\u00e9ed clams with Thai basil and chilli sauce (left) served with pad Thai Sukhothai and Thai iced milk tea at Hollywood Thai. Photo: Los Angeles Times\/TNS\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1bj5zno e1gf69pb1\">Saut\u00e9ed clams with Thai basil and chilli sauce (left) served with pad Thai Sukhothai and Thai iced milk tea at Hollywood Thai. Photo: Los Angeles Times\/TNS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">For a few years, Mahidol \u201cJoe\u201d Pimpa\u2019s Hollywood Thai restaurant felt busy, with Thai tourists and other restaurant owners stopping by for satay, curries and specialities such as pad Thai Sukhothai. But since <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">the Covid-19 pandemic<\/span>, business has slowed to a trickle.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/food-drink\/article\/3359940\/these-asian-owned-la-restaurants-paid-influencers-promote-them-they-failed-deliver?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It started with US$500 and a comped meal at Hollywood Thai. That is what the family-run restaurant in Los Angeles\u2019 Thai Town paid an influencer&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[26295,9021,2515,2153,2315,10468,3644],"class_list":["post-67600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-asianowned","tag-deliver","tag-failed","tag-influencers","tag-paid","tag-promote","tag-restaurants","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}