'Ultimate influencer' remarks don't go down too well in Sunderland

While acknowledging that the city can always promote itself more, there are times when it’s reasonable to throw up the arms and say “It’s not us, it’s them.”

It has since been brought to our attention that someone on (apologies in advance) social media has tried to “help” Wearside.

The person in question uses the optimistic job title of “influencer”. It should be said that the individual has intentions doomed surpass accomplishment on this front, although it isn’t all their fault

Our influencer lives in the North East, but not Sunderland, and posted: “Following my city break to Sunderland last week one of my friends messaged me to say ‘you will be the ultimate influencer if you can ever convince me to visit’.”

The post continues in an intendedly positive vein and recommends the place. But the unwittingly patronising tone and regrettably worded “ultimate influencer” guff make it self-defeating.

Good on anyone who tries to bolster Sunderland; even those who do so cack-handedly and are clearly doomed in the attempt.

The real problem is the symbolic “friend” of the influencer who, assuming they also live close to Sunderland, seems to have attained a level of uninformedness that must take appreciable dedication to maintain.

I don’t know who the friend is and have no inclination to find out.

So forgive me if I am wrong, but I can’t help thinking of someone who would know zero of Sunderland’s historic buildings, first-class venues, culture, religious and industrial heritage, beaches, greenery and all the other things we regularly and rightly extol.

Furthermore, in the unlikely event of such an individual actually being aware of these things, the tendency of such a soul is to imagine that such attributes are outweighed by the closure of Debenham’s.

The sort who would eschew a trip to the Great Wall of China on the basis that when you’ve seen one wall…

To return to our motif; it’s not us, it’s them.