Instagram star causes a stir with unusual plane accessory

We all pack things in our hand luggage to make a long-haul flight a little better. Our favourite snacks, a neck pillow, a good book – maybe even a face mask or two if we’re feeling a little extra. What you don’t see every day is people packing things to make the interior of the actual plane itself more appealing.

However, the world of Instagram influencers works a little differently from the everyday, and photographers will go to any length to capture the perfect shot for social media – even if that means packing fairy lights for an on board photoshoot.

Yes, fairy lights. Instagram influencer and photographer Harimao Lee has come under fire after uploading a photo of an upper-class seat on a Cathay Pacific flight decorated with lights – a common technique of the photographer’s to add a bit of magic to snaps, if Harimao’s Instagram account is anything to go by.

While a blanket strewn with fairy lights just seems oh-so-insta in the extreme, for some social media users, it was one step too far away from reality.

“This is ridiculous! This sort of staged nonsense is a joke. Nobody travels like this!!” wrote one angry Instagram user, while another added, “fake, false, staged and clearly ‘paid for by promotion’.”

And the fairy lights weren’t the only thing people had a problem with.

Fellow social media users also pointed out that the shot in question also shows a woman sitting the wrong way round on the upper-class seat. Sitting in the footwell may not be real life, but this is a staged shot for Instagram after all.

Hong Kong-based influencer Harimao Lee described the photo as having a, “fancy setup” in his behind-the-scenes Instagram story from the flight, but apart from that hasn’t acknowledged the reaction surrounding the photo.

With hundreds of comments complimenting the photographer on the shot and a leap from 126,000 Instagram followers to 127,000 in the last 24 hours, the fairy lights seem to have done the trick anyway.

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