For anyone involved in content creation or social media, name and brand recognition is a huge concern, which is why, every now and then, some brands will buy their desired social media handle off existing users so they can ensure people can find them easily and that their usernames are the same across all platforms.
Some influencers have also been known to engage in this practice, messaging plebs who dare to have the same name as them and ask if they’d be willing to part with their Instagram handle. One such influencer is Katherine Asplundh, née Drisc, an influencer who recently married into the Asplundh family.
In case you haven’t heard of the Asplundhs, you’re not alone; they became billionaires thanks to their tree-trimming business, and had a net worth of over $2.6 billion in 2015. Back in 2022, they bankrolled snake oil salesman Dr. Oz’s senate campaign, because Oz is married to Lisa Oz, granddaughter of Carl Hj Asplundh.
Katherine, meanwhile, is significantly less famous than Dr. and Mrs. Oz, having only around 11,000 followers at the time of making her unusual request. Katherine messaged a fellow Katherine Asplundh to ask if she could purchase her username from her, as she recently got married and changed her name.
The OG Katherine Asplundh was concerned about selling her username as it violates Instagram’s Terms of Use, but influencer Katherine assured her it was fine as she’s done it before. She also started trying to question OG Katherine’s Asplundh bona fides, writing, “So weird I didn’t know there was another Asplundh family out there. There no Katherine Asplundh in our family,” before going back to asking again if she could buy the username, especially since she doesn’t appear to use the account much.
Not taking no for an answer, influencer Katherine then wrote, “I actually don’t believe that your name is Katherine Asplundh who would make their finsta their actual name?” before revealing that she and her fiancé (I thought they were married?) have reported her. Influencer Katherine continued to argue that OG Katherine was impersonating her, because she’s so incredibly famous that this would be likelier than someone having the same name as her, obviously.
She pulled up a Facebook screenshot showing no other Katherine Asplundhs on that site before adding, “The family I just married into is the only Asplundh family in the US,” apparently forgetting that there are people, particularly people with Swedish surnames, who live outside the US. Some of them might even live in Sweden!
OG Katherine ended the chat by reiterating that she’s had the account since 2018 and won’t be selling it, adding that she has also reported Influencer Katherine to Instagram for asking her to violate the app’s terms and for harassment.
The users of r/NYCinfluencersnark were quick to implore OP to never give up the username while adding several other suggestions, including making the account public and becoming more active than ever or sharing the screenshots with the Daily Mail.
Meanwhile, others were tickled by influencer Katherine’s inclusion of the Facebook screenshot, with one commenter writing, “I want to live in a world where I’m so out of touch that I think Facebook is a record of everyone alive on earth currently.”
Maybe one day in the future social media will replace the census and/or the phone book, but that day is not today.
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