Why YouTube Sponsors Are (Almost) Always Terrible

[@Micro-Econ-YT]

This video was made possible by [Insert sponsor name here] sign up now for 20% off your retirement savings!

[@seeblu]

I called the head office at [insert sponsor name here], they had never heard of you

[@TheOneWhoMightBe]

Sorry, but i got an offer for 100% off my kids college fund in exchange for a hyperlink to a unique but screenshottable picture that may or may not still exist 6 months from now.

[@7Naur7]

ha, hope you dont shitflate ;D realy nice channel and growing(i hope) btw i think services like wt -normal sponsor.Yes we joking about it scripts but its work and i persanaly have fun in this game some years ago.still wondering what could be wrong with GNews with such large advertising company - funny how any advertising on KZbin today causes skepticism

[@haruhisuzumiya6650]

This is a black mirror episode waiting to happen

[@benxiro4293]

To go even further: i´m a indie author who would love to sponsor videos - but thanks to Established Bullshit & Co the prices which creators are demanding are insane. I know that they have expenses but 3 to 10 k? Come on

[@CatFish107]

The single sponsored ad read that I respect was a local New York plumbing business that sponsored a single episode of an ancient history podcast video. " if you live in X, NY, and are in need of a plumber, consider the sponsor of today's episode" and gave a phone number. It was adorable.

[@ShenDoodles]

I’ve seen multiple games sponsor Second Wind that are absolutely fantastic. Most notable out of all of these is Shadows of Doubt, a procedurally generated detective game that simulates a huge city full of crime and sets you loose to solve mystery after mystery until you’re either completely sick of it or dead from malnutrition with a big smile on your face. I love sponsors like that because there’s no risk to trying them out.

[@zellalaing5439]

That reminds me of a home reno video where the youtuber reallt wanted to promote the builder, but they had enough clients queued up they didnt need to endorsement 😂

[@cococowboah]

If I ever get anywhere with my channel those are the only kind of sponsorships I'd take on, small businesses, or games I actually play. I couldn't even stick it out in the cult I was raised in once I found out the truth about it just to keep my family from shunning me, there's no way I could shill BetterHelp with a straight face even if I wanted to.

[@ii8283]

Toldinstone! Also if I remember correctly, that was one of his main channel videos, not a podcast. Could be wrong on that though. I also thought of that one as one of the very few sponsorships I approved of

[@momoaa]

​@@ShenDoodles this is an ad.

[@countercole1]

In the early 2000's I was taught that clicking ads of any kind would give my computer viruses. While that's not 100% accurate, it has helped create the immediate negative response to ads every single time I see one.

[@tsm688]

for the early internet it wasn't wrong. everyone was already pretty much immune to ads so nobody advertised except scammers. google kind of cleaned that up for a while, then decided that was way harder than giving up on vetting and printing money. now we're back to all ads being scams again

[@TKBarnes]

I've been getting tons of clearly LLM generated ads recently, so I absolutely agree with your lesson. I learned it too early on, but it never became a problem because at the same time, I basically accepted that any shit that cuts into my watched video, is automatically a "I'll never buy this." Also, betterhelp is imo the worst offender. Its not their fault completely, but the idea of health as a product, especially mental health, is horrifying to me.

[@crisgriffin3042]

Same. Yet sheep are still clicking on ads like there is no tomorrow. Otherwise they wouldn't be all over the place on every website, inventing new crazy workarounds against pop-up blockers. It's like someone said: "stupid people should have a way to pay for their stupidity". If people don't care enough to learn, let the economical Darwinism take the initiative.

[@Taladar2003]

@@tsm688 On the contrary, in the early internet clicking ads was relatively safe because they were passive banners. Today even showing ads is a security risk.

[@sunbleachedangel]

Outside of KZbin that's true 99.9% of the time. You'll either get a real virus or a fake virus with a scam call center

[@yeet-lj3dr]

the ones promoting betterhelp whilst knowing they have a vulnerable audience and saying they use it themselves when they're a youtuber with enough money to pay 5 therapists to listen to them yap at once is what's most egregious to me. that's people's mental health you're toying with for the sake of a video sponsor.

[@mynameisambertoo7379]

It’s the same when they promote those meal kit subscriptions and specifically mention it’s “affordable” and reduce “waste”.

[@jordannoell4222]

​@mynameisambertoo7379 Not really. The degree of harm from betterhelp is significantly more than paying for an overpriced and somewhat wasteful food prep service. One of them sells your most sensitive medical data to advertisers and has extremely lax standards about their "quality of care", if you can even call it that, and the other charges you 15$ for a single chicken breast and some veggies. One is a waste of money and the other may be an active danger to your wellbeing.

[@CHRB-nn6qp]

Betterhelp ruined my faith in therapy for years. It was only very recently that I finally tried it and started to make progress. To see them still making ads and sponsoring people is nothing short of a kick in the balls

[@cloudnine.17]

there was one KZbinr I used to like, he made a video talking about mental health apps and mental health products that didn't actually work and were just taking advantage of the customers. the ridiculous part is in that same video he did a sponsorship for betterhelp, and this is after they had already been outed as a scam.

[@Eichro]

I mean it seemed like a good idea before all the controversies struck. You have an audience that needs therapy and there's a sponsor offering you to make their work known.

[@beckobert]

Small correction: the KZbin algorithm is perfectly capable of telling positive and negative response apart, it just doesn't care, because for KZbin, engagement is engagement is engagement.

[@catbatrat1760]

I'm not sure if you meant to repeat that last part 3 times, but I kinda like it

[@thedemolitionsexpertsledge5552]

And this is why ‘do not recommend’ features are actually useless in the long term: the algorithm *will* recommend content from the same channel again after a few months, even if you’ve said not to. Your engagement is KZbin’s money, and they don’t care if you love it or hate it, only that you interact.

[@tonn333]

Now think about KZbin's decision to remove thumbs down on videos and how it doesn't show how many thumbs down a comment received either..... They knowingly block anything that could bring down the hype.... Edit: oh and they removed the most damaging, but in my opinion the most helpful feature... Video responses... Back in the day under every video there was a video response section kinda like comments section but KZbin videos specifically responding to that particular video.

[@nyet_maker7948]

​@@thedemolitionsexpertsledge5552 dude thats actually not true! I have made the "experiment" for my account and blocken every vontent i dont want to see (political debates, music videos, etc) and have done this for a month straight (actually clicked on the do not 'recommend from this channel' without opening the vid) and i tell you, the algo does clean it self up. It does try to sneak in things from time to time, but dont click on it and press "do not recommend" from anything you dont wish to see. Kept me sane through multiple elections (my country and US, because its annoying to listen to people whine, like it matters, as if it was the iron throne).

[@3nertia]

@@catbatrat1760 The shortest path to memorization is repetition, repetition, repetition! :D

[@jwenting]

you forget a MAJOR factor in why youtube sponsorships and ads are so often scams or junk products: this is the only way these companies can advertise at all. Advertising standards bodies and consumer protection laws exist precisely to prevent such companies advertising anywhere else! But youtube and many of their "creators" couldn't care less, as those same regulations don't apply to them.

[@ryanjohnson4565]

Say it with me now… 1…2..3.. “darn it.”

[@kalinmir]

I see way more scammy things from google and meta (actual viruses, impersonations...)

[@KairuHakubi]

funny how the law applies to youtube only when they decide it does (and they circumvent legal protections and rights to enforce it)

[@ErmenBlankenberg]

I see plenty of dusbious and scammy websites and products being advertised on Facebook and Instagram, so I don't think this reasoning really stands

[@lukeyznaga7627]

this was the most IMPORTANT COMMENT and very TRUTHFUL comment, "jwenting"!! JWENTING is correct. His comment is RIGHT TO THE POINT and explains everything. Thank you, Jwenting!!

[@WabbitSeeson]

Always feel like im skipping half of the video and they always have the same script too. I just hate that they act like they use it regularly when you know they dont.

[@Micro-Econ-YT]

I think there is absolutely a place for it and as long as the sponsors are not shady I understand why KZbinrs take them. But you’re right it’s so much more effective if they are just honest about it.

[@WabbitSeeson]

​@@Micro-Econ-YTfax. I'm sure most KZbinrs that take sponsors don't consider themselves as sellouts but if you're reading a script for money that's sellout behavior.

[@scootybooty9626]

Look up the sponsor block extension

[@rodh1404]

@@Micro-Econ-YT The problem is that just about every KZbin sponsor IS shady. Some are worse (much worse) than others, but it's hard to find any of them that are really worthwhile. At the very least, you can usually find a similar product with better quality for a lower price. The one type of sponsorship that I do go for sometimes is the one you didn't really mention. That's game sponsorships where the developer has paid for a KZbinr to play their game and feature it on their channel. Often enough, they don't even pay the KZbinr and just gift them a key to their game. It's such an effective method of advertising games that even bigger publishers will sometimes use it.

[@mr.boomguy]

Feel like? I always do it. It's the same stuff, I'm not gonna try 99% of it anyway, and like you said, it's just a repeat

[@realitypoet]

The worst part about quitting my job at Squarespace is that I still have to hear an ad for them like every day on KZbin lol

[@elisee9935]

why did you quit?

[@sirBrouwer]

@@elisee9935 to go work at Roundplaza

[@johan13135]

Why the hell aren't you using Adblockers?

[@fb2433]

@@johan13135 squarespace ads are from the content creator themselves, not ads from youtube

[@realitypoet]

@johan13135 I pay for KZbin premium so I never see ads. I’m talking about sponsorships read by the creators. You know, the topic of the video I’m commenting under. I guess I should have said “sponsorship read” but o figured the context made it clear, and I think of sponsorship reads as ads, because they are.

[@MateusChristopher]

1st Gen KZbinrs were terrified of ads. Eventually it turned into "I only take on ads that I care about" and now the newest guys will shill anything because just like your favorite TV channel they have to shill anything

[@nunomartins2209]

Nowadays u have KZbinrs doing anti fraud videos, and then in the middle sponsor a fraud

[@kenon6968]

That's some nice revisionism most OG KZbinrs were scared that they weren't getting any AdSense, not that they were playing ads on their stupid videos, or worse yet the people were using Adblock so that we wouldn't have to listen to them and they wouldn't get their cut

[@arsonisticdelphox807]

Me having to skip the beginning of Papa Meat's videos

[@DavidCruickshank]

@@kenon6968 It's not "revisionism " you just didn't read their comment properly. They're not talking about Adsense, they're talking about sponsorship ads. If someone did a modern sponsorship on OG youtube, you'd be repeatedly attacked for being a "sell out".

[@asmrtpop2676]

Well, the majority of them don’t have to. They could, like, get a normal job like the rest of us viewers do.

[@marekkedzierski8237]

KZbin sponsorships are great, they show you which products you should never buy.

[@DanKaschel]

Looking at you raycon

[@John-td7vp]

@@DanKaschel Me, but with Honey

[@borrago]

I found out that better help was bullshit when I paid them and THEN they told me that in a pool of thousands of 'therapists' they didn't have even a SINGLE board certified pyschologist or psychiatrist. Not a single one. Not even a medical director for the organisation.

[@moch.farisdzulfiqar6123]

Man, as a Psychology graduated bachelor, who know some counselling and therapy technique but didn't have any certifications, I felt cheated. Some of my friends insisted to get counselling sessions with me, but I keep advised them to seek professional help even if it didn't feel any different from what I do. Counselling and psychotherapy are quite expensive for an average Indonesian working class, while at the same time there are few practitioner in the whole country and mostly available at the major city.

[@nickalotdegit]

I'm now super suspicious of any channel that currently advertises them, but also any channel that has advertised, quits their agreement (so they don't ad' them any further) and *doesn't* tell people they used to take their money. I can think of a Channel that reviewed movies, and one of the hosts is a practicing therapist. No word from tgem that they used to be sponsored by B.H.

[@horrorhotel1999]

​@@nickalotdegit why? Do you actually feel that youtubers have a responsibility towards you to screen the products they are advertising? I think that's weird af - do you actually trust an ad to be in your best interest if it is aired on a semi-credible platform?😂

[@chriswest6988]

​@@horrorhotel1999I'm not the person you asked but I'd maybe say yes but only in severe cases? Like if a channel told me Fruzzums brand cookies are delicious and I buy some and hate them, and it turns out so do most people, that just comes with the territory. A lot of ads make unproven, misleading, but ultimately subjective claims to get you to try the product. If however they tell me Fruzzums brand cookies are delicious and it turns out they don't exist and the website steals my credit card, yeah I think they had some responsibility to prevent that. I think my personal line is that if I'm harmed beyond just the loss of the product sticker price, I'd be upset at them for doing that sponsorship. If I get lead poisoning or my friend gets hooked on ketamine (a thing I've seriously seen advertised on KZbin but not directly by creators), that's about where I start blaming the platform and the individual pitch men to some extent.

[@flux.aeterna]

One of the people on that channel is a therapist and as a care provider is obligated to do no harm to the populace when advising on related care. Sponsoring B.H. blatantly violates those ethical guidelines.

[@ookjannesplanting1296]

The fact that usually you hear about a sponsor everywhere and then suddenly never anymore after a few months clued me in pretty quickly that anything that sponsors a yt vid isn't worth the effort

[@Ushio01]

BetterHelp has been owned by Teladoc Health since 2015 who were founded on 2002 and are part of Telehealth Access for America with the American Medical Association (AMA), American Hospital Association (AHA), AARP, Amazon, Walmart and CVS. They aren't small. The same with Dollar Shave Club that has been owned by Unilever sice 2016. HelloFresh was founded in 2011 in Germany and has been publically listed since 2017. All startups start as unknowns and KZbin is fucking huge it's 10.6% of all US TV viewing now (that's more than Amazon Prime Video, Max, Disney+, Peacock and Paramount+ combined! and that's before mobile and computer usage!) Not all the KZbin sponsors are fly by night companies. Though supplement, NFT, crypto and finacial stuff should obviously be avoided.

[@santinosalamanca4378]

yeah I swear raid shadow legends has just disappeared from earth (good)

[@KasumiRINA]

its like MLM, those products aren't sold in shops because they aren't competitive...

[@malum9478]

anybody remember _lootcrate?_

[@Bargate]

Yeah ive honestly been surprised that the amount of sponsorships havent gone down because of this. I feel like basically everyone skips past the sponsorship and no one buys it.

[@Halucygeno]

KZbin sponsors are like an anti-advertisement for me. For example, the underlying concept behind Ground News actually sounds kinda useful, but they get shilled so hard that I'm almost certain they're either garbage or a scam. I don't even feel like looking further into it, I'm that confident they're not worth my time.

[@christopher9727]

Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today Holy Spirit Can give you peace guidance and purpose and the Lord will John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus

[@oafkad]

Yeah it bums me out. Sounds neat but I don't trust it since it's on YT :p

[@divestdreamer]

I have the same thoughts with aura. On the surface, they sound really really useful and great but the constant pushing makes me not wanna get it

[@nancy78811]

Ground News has been around since 2018 though and they've only really been on KZbin the last few years. Maybe they're ok 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@scrittle]

Perfectly sums up why I don't recommend it.

[@PXAbstraction]

I have a simple rule: If a KZbinr is shilling it, I don't want it. This rule has served me very well.

[@roguebanshee]

That should really be the starting point of everyone.

[@sethaie]

bit simpler. If its advertised in social media, stay away

[@NeedForMadnessSVK]

I like youtube sponsors, that way, if I like the product, I can put "[product name] alternative" into google and buy equivalent product either cheaper, or higher quality for the same price, as those alternatives don't spend 70% of their budget on marketing.

[@lucemiserlohn]

Much simpler: If it's in an ad, wherever, whichever kind, whenever, I don't want it.

[@jcaesar19871]

Well, Magic Spoon is pretty good, and so was Dollar Shave Club. And my brother's friend gave him a code for free Hello Fresh meals for a while.

[@willia_music]

I respect the youtubers that put an "ad" chapter and change their tone of voice when doing an ad. It satisfies the sponsor while giving a nod to the actual fans

[@unclejoeljoestar988]

I love it when Karl Jobst shills Raid Shadow Legend. He sounds so apathetic like he's being held at gunpoint, that it comes off as a genuine "I hate it, but this pays the bills" impression

[@greensoldier2142]

I've noticed some who talk in front of a camera, tend to change their shirts for the duration of the ad, then change back to their normal one after it

[@nojerama788]

Some folks run a timer for the ad and show it on screen, or pull a Caddicarus and have it presented as part of a completely pathetic skit that is blatantly a piss take

[@megaminum8325]

​@@greensoldier2142if I had to guess, that's probably because the add read was filmed at a later date then the rest of the video

[@Jane-oz7pp]

​@@nojerama788 lol like Mr Beast, except the timer is skewed and designed to trick you into committing to the ad because it's "not so long"

[@HerecomestheCalavera]

My favorite was when Lootcrate was sponsoring what seemed like every channel. It was so hilarious to watch people unbox that trash and act like they were super excited about. "Oh wow! A Captain America air freshener, nice. And next we have a Superman keychain! Wow this is an awesome box this month guys. Oh and here is the pin for this month that says "Heroes"

[@TorIverWilhelmsen]

Yeah, it seemed ERB for instance were funded by them (and patreons but...)

[@kyuraki]

Haha thanks for the reminder, yea taught me to never fall for it again

[@Jane-oz7pp]

ngl there was a bit there where every other crate did have something actually of value, but like, still eh 🤷🏼‍♀️ I can only have so many $200 Deadpool vinyl figurines sitting around.

[@gafrers]

Better still were knifes and hatchets in crates opened by cars/motorsport related channels. What am I going to to with them? Changing sparkplus with a knife?😂😂😂 Chopping up the guy that drove faster than me? 😂😂

[@HeelBJC]

That's why sassy british men like Ashens who opened them and ruthlessly shat on how bad they were gave me such entertainment.

[@blacky7801]

"Its not just you, KZbins sponsors are almost always terrible" I like the guts of starting off the video calling the viewer terrible. Keep up the quality work!

[@Micro-Econ-YT]

Haha this gave me a good chuckle. You know what I mean!!

[@scrittle]

No, the 'almost' keeps the door ajar to assume there are honest KZbinrs with healthy endorsements. "KZbin sponsors are always terrible" is the best.

[@zellalaing5439]

Thats how it sounded to me too 😂😂😂😂😂

[@ZmbieTaco]

I might be missing something but how the hell does that line call the viewer terrible? If that's a typo then wtf, you've had 2 days with pings and haven't fixed it?

[@santinosalamanca4378]

​@@ZmbieTaco that was what i was thinking too the comment does not make any sense

[@ILoveTinfoilHats]

What's 50x worse are the undisclosed sponsors, like finance channels promoting pump and dump stocks and coins

[@kenon6968]

@@ILoveTinfoilHats with the SEC being so hamstrung as it is and legislation a generation out of date it is by far the easiest way to make money, with zero legal repercussions

[@lunarvvolf9606]

I cannot stand the myriad of financial fraud channels that are allowed to persist. Fuq crypto bozos and their shit coins, nfts, or what ever else those shit slinging monkeys are selling these days..

[@fdk7014]

The golden rule is: anything crypto related is a scam.

[@mikebarnes2294]

Let's not forget finance channels with a bogus chain of comments pumping up how great Jane Smith (or fill in the blank with whoever) advisor is in helping you earn excellent outsized returns.

[@ILoveTinfoilHats]

@mikebarnes2294 those are not entirely the fault of the KZbinr, but KZbin itself

[@GatorInVirtual]

I'm surprised videogames wasnt listed as a category of sponsorships, given raid and genshin being such big memes in the community

[@serkhetreo2489]

Yeah, played raid

[@random009-09]

they fall under category of subscriptions cuz of their gacha pay to skip grind garbage.

[@samphelps856]

It's all three in a way

[@christophsiebert1213]

@@random009-09 I wish I could pay to skip in genshin. But sadly you have to sink in an ungodly amount of time to grind. You get a bit of advantage when paying, but they limit you in the amount of advancing per day. I want pay to skip at points in this grind fest and not waste more of my life away for mind-numbing repetetive processes. And before you ask, I like the world and story of the game, that's why I don't want to stop, it's just the grinding to keep up with high-difficulty stuff, if the rewards entice me.

[@ShadowOfCicero]

And how many sportstubers are shilling for gambling sites and apps now?

[@rewboss]

I experimented with sponsorship deals a few years ago -- never again. It was nearly impossible to find a sponsor I felt genuinely happy about recommending and which was promoting something even remotely relevant to my channel, but even they expected me to violate KZbin's guidelines and annoy my viewers -- things like putting affiliate links above the fold in video descriptions and 90-second promotions in the middle of the videos ("But before we talk about why the new law is going to impoverish millions of people and provoke a civil war, are you looking for a fun way to learn a new language?"). The problem is that even if all you really want to do is to earn enough to keep your channel running and to not starve, ad revenue isn't enough unless all your videos are getting millions of views (especially if, like me, you refuse to enable mid-rolls because they're just awful). Which leaves you looking for more revenue streams, and when some company e-mails you to offer you their cash, the path of least resistance is to sign on the dotted line.

[@gamers_mate5680]

Mid-rolls are terrible. I have a personal rule that no video will be longer than 9:59 in length to prevent them. Unfortunately I only recently found out it is actually 8 minutes now and has been for a long time. I recommend using firefox instead of chrome and using ublock origin to block ads. It is the only way an illegal monopoly like google will learn.

[@rewboss]

@@gamers_mate5680 As a creator, I can't condone the use of ad blockers: I have to pay my bills somehow. But also as a creator I always disable midrolls on all of my uploads. It's a single click of the mouse.

[@Vickynger]

@@gamers_mate5680 you think theyll LEARN??? lets not be naive

[@111BAUER111]

Als langjähriger Zuschauer schätze ich deinen Umgang mit Werbung sehr.

[@TheReconJacob]

Correct me if I am wrong. But I am pretty sure you can't even disable mid-rolls anymore. Didn't KZbin implement something a while back where they just enable all ads to "help you out"?

[@eightymopar]

It should be obvious that the majority of these "sponsors" are just the modern day "as seen on tv" scams. Nobody should actually be buying this crap. I know thats how alot of youtubers make their living but...still. it should be a content creators duty to properly vet the sponsors they get, and not be out here promoting scams.

[@Purplefire0796]

1000000%. yes creators should definally do the same amount of research they do for their video themselves.

[@CMSonYT]

How terrible is ground news

[@cron1807]

Jacksfilms took a sponsorship from Betterhelp after saying he'd never take a sponsorship from them again

[@TorIverWilhelmsen]

"I know I have my principles, but they gave me money."

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

@@TorIverWilhelmsen His principles are for the right price anything, which I actually share, but unlike me his price for doing morally bad things is very low.

[@jmurray1110]

That needs more context he could have been locked in before it broke and couldn’t leave so if he didn’t it persistently after yes that’s an issue but if it was 1 or 2 videos closely after that’s very different

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

@@jmurray1110 If he was locked in for 2 more video he should have rapidly pumped those out and then apoligised and explained that he had actually been wanting to stop for 2 videos know but the contracts tems where black on white so he had to do 2 more.

[@jmurray1110]

@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 that’s fair but unlikely sponsor videos need more time because the sponsers have a tendact to just give them back and tell them it’s not right even if it’s just the segment Alternatively editing

[@wtdogevb]

bro i didn't realise you were a small channel until I looked down and saw it. seriously high quality for someone who just started.

[@zacdakin8815]

same

[@Micro-Econ-YT]

I appreciate that!

[@Helldiver211]

Same

[@DavidCruickshank]

Very true!

[@Maria-zz3fw]

Agree

[@Lacewise]

This has a ton of overlap with celebrity marketing, despite influencers marketing themselves as “not celebrities”.

[@Avendesora]

When they try to call themselves celebrities they almost universally get told to sit tf down because they’re just youtubers lmao

[@Lacewise]

@ that’s true but they’ve made it part of their sales pitch (and you can look up studies that say this works) that they’re not celebrities, they can’t be celebrities, they’re just KZbinrs! So you can trust them! But what’s discussed in the video is 1:1 analogous with Golden Age Hollywood star culture (which has been studied academically). This includes the “oh they sold a scam but how could they know?” And “they needed the money! Their actual job doesn’t pay them enough and they have no job security!” Which kind of dehumanizes the people who lost their money on a scam, who presumably have less money than the influencer. Regardless, they’re selling themselves as the everyman celebrity and people are buying.

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

Influencers are 100% celebrities. Proper youtubers are neither.

[@Lacewise]

@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 how do you make the distinction?

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

@@Lacewise By how they act. If they act like out of touch scum than they are the former, if they are normal people they are the later.

[@shortycareface9678]

It will never cease to make me sad that there's a significant amount of people who consider "influencers" their friends

[@catpoke9557]

What really upsets me is that channels that are otherwise good and very honest still not only accept these sponsors, but pretend to like their product. I've seen so many people claim that they "actually use" and "really enjoy" products nobody would ever use.

[@theventuracountyrailfan]

My family has only used one sponsorship ever: Hello fresh. We got a gift subscription from someone and started subscribing ourselves when it ran out. We canceled after they made the food quality horrible, to the point we would need to buy some of our own ingredients. I would not recommend. By the end the meat was nasty and half of the stuff would come expired.

[@ZZ-qy5mv]

There used to be another meal kit company called Plated that I believe came before Hello Fresh. It was so good. The food tasted like something I would get at a trendy restaurant, and I learned how to cook from it. But then it shut down after all these other companies like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh invested so much in marketing. It’s so sad that a legit quality product goes under to their competitors that end up offering horrible products.

[@locsoluv94]

My biggest issue with them is that we went multiple weeks without any shipment. Like, they would just get lost in the sauce and then I'd have to figure out a different dinner plan for that week. Sure, they would refund me my money, but it was still annoying to not get the thing you ordered. Also how impossible it is to stop having them harass you. They still send me stuff in the mail. I still get emails and google ads titled "come back" even though I explicitly told them to remove me from their database. The only real positives I got from that is the recipe cards I collected, and some recipes outside of my comfort zone. I still use a few of them from time to time.

[@Sashko_Dee]

I don't get the appeal of these grocery shopper services for the average person. I don't trust some random jabroni to pick out the best produce or the bread that wasn't mangled. Not to mention that you can't ring up your Wagyu beef as bananas at the self checkout. And you pay extra for this privilege.

[@F3ARtheGERBIL]

I've tried some factor meals through some friends and they're actually pretty damn good. Hopefully they can keep it up!

[@jaex9617]

What got me was that every kilogram of food sent 5 kg of packaging waste to the landfill. Why not just have a picnic and dump your trash in the park? 😑

[@TheUncleRuckus]

What really pisses me off is now those scamming POS at Better Help are posting commercials on TV and buying actual ads on KZbin and not going the sponsorship route. I report their ad as a Scam every time it shows up on YT but the ppl bamboozled by them via TV Commercials aren't aware of this issues as its been largely confined in our online space.

[@skullsaintdead]

Good on ya, respect. BetterHelp is one of the most dangerous dodgy sponsors, as it targets already vulnerable people who may be severely depressed and anxious and just sells their info to advertisers, while providing poor (and sometimes unqualified) generalised mental health advice. Anyone who still takes their money after their dodgy-ness was exposed several years ago, I have no respect for. Basically, screw you for taking profit over someone else's suffering.

[@Sashko_Dee]

Don't be a silly goose and waste your time with watching and/or reporting ads. Advertisements are like a cancer. What you want to do is cut them out entirely. Grab Firefox with the ublock origin and sponsorblock extension for your home PC and patch yourself KZbin revanced on Android. No more ads, no more inline sponsor segments. All for free. And best of all you screw Google out of money and have a better experience than the jabronis that pay for YT Premium.

[@TheRealJabbergeist]

Same here, I get viscerally angry whenever a video breaks to a better help ad.

[@akiradkcn]

Get a ad blocker, reports do nothing

[@SoloDoloPoloOlaf]

Want to actually do something? Report it to the responsible government agency of your country. You can also tip off some journalists for your local/national news if you want to "force" the government agency to respond (at all). I'm joking, no one gives a shit. Google is too big to care.

[@mane9228]

If I see a sponsor in a video and feel interrupted, I will absolutely boycott their product

[@k.chriscaldwell4141]

👍

[@shingshongshamalama]

If I see a sponsor in a video, I will absolutely boycott their product

[@dermeisterdesspiegels3518]

Si veo a un patrocinador en un vídeo y me siento interrumpido, boicotearé absolutamente su producto.

[@Confucius_Says...]

Abso f***king lutely

[@lePirateMan]

I do the same. It's a shame it doesn't work

[@sunbleachedangel]

Nice to hear at least someone with enough balls to say "No! Your favourite influencer IS to blame!" Because they are

[@epbrown01]

I’ve always felt a big part of the reason the big name advertisers don’t do KZbin is that it has the same problem as MuskTwitter: the people your brand/product/ads aren’t vetted professionals and can turn out to be sketchy as hell. Coca-cola is not looking to be part of Logan Paul’s next scandal, but something like FTX or Yotta won’t mind so much.

[@TigerLily61811]

Coca Cola also isn't looking to advertise to 250k people... they want to advertise to 250M people.

[@apertureatomics]

​@@TigerLily61811yes, and they did so really badly this year LOL

[@intergalacticalcommiteeofp9807]

The most annoying thing is the repetitive script. They have to hit certain marketing phrases that makes them look like complete shills. And because it seems that when there is a major sponsor, they will buy out like 95% of all videos, that script is repeated again and again worse than what you'd get on TV. Like it was so bad with NordVPN and Raid Shadow Legends, phrases like "This video is sponsored by NordVPN" or "This video is sponsored by RAID SHADOW LEGENDS" became such memes, even though I hardly see either of them sponsoring anymore (NordVPN has a sister VPN Surfshark that still pops up every now and then, but not nearly as much). But I guess it's also a saving grace, if the creator has nothing to say that hasn't been repeated in exact same order with exact same marketing phrases, I know they don't use it and took the sponsorship for the money.

[@jfwfreo]

I remember seeing a travel channel that ran a VPN ad on a video about traveling to a country where VPNs are illegal.

[@Kanbei11]

​@@jfwfreoand from what I've seen only one person (Tom Scott) has mentioned that getting around geo blocked content might not be allowed by streaming services

[@djw7141]

@@Kanbei11u can’t expect everyone to be as good as Tom Scott.

[@Kanbei11]

@@djw7141 that's true and on top of that he has the best subtitles on the platform. It's just something I never even thought of until I saw him mention it

[@intergalacticalcommiteeofp9807]

@@jfwfreo Okay, this might sound like a shill when I just complained about them, but I worked for a VPN customer support (everyone needs a student job to complain about) and truth be told, the restricted countries are probably the ones that actually get the most benefit out of it. Sure, the service is spotty, the firewall contantly updates and VPN crashes (especially China, we had a whole seperate workflow how to get VPN to work in China), but when we got it to work again, people actually could bypass government restrictions. If I were to move to one of those restricted countries, I probably would consider paying the totally not worth it in a free country price for a VPN. But it is my personal experience, I honestly saw no need for VPNs until half of the messages I got were Chinese people thankful to access the internet again and realised it actually is useful to them.

[@jaloswaggons2182]

I always find terrible irony when channels that focus on being informative clearly read from a sponsor script and lie about using the product themselves. How can I trust a video essay on a complicated topic if the video literally started with them lying to my face? It's ridiculous

[@queuedjar4578]

It usually also means they're reading a script based entirely off of copying and pasting a wikipedia page too, which is peak low effort content.

[@sohail008007]

They know it's fake and will probably expect people to see it's fake and skip the sponsor

[@blammela]

Yeah. I bought racons only bcz I believed in the integrity of Swoop. And I’m not some dumb kid and not buying a bunch of influencer crap. But I was duped. Turns out they are known to be crappy. I can’t watch swoop docs anymore cuz I just hear her BS voice shilling racons through the whole thing now. There is no way she had the experience w the product she claimed or researched them at all. Lesson learned.

[@straydotmp4]

kinda wish KZbin sponsors worked in the way of >KZbinr mentions they use a product very often in their day-to-day lives (actual normal VPN, some brand of tea, some kind of electronics, etc) >company reaches out and offers a small-scale discount for viewers The latest nightmare scenario has been big KZbinrs pushing law firms like Morgan & Morgan ???? Like hello what??????

[@cibularas3485]

Simple history pushed Mirgab

[@NXTangl]

Except lawtubers, they mostly shill their own firms-that makes *sense.*

[@LeonCoretz]

It took years to happen but this was how SpiffingBrit (Spiff) got a car. He always peddled Yorkshire tea.

[@vocaeien]

​@@LeonCoretz I love that for him

[@b3thamphetamine]

@@LeonCoretz Please tell me it was wrapped in their logo.

[@theowinters6314]

I really want to see more PBS style sponsors, where it's up front, only about 10 seconds long and easy to skip.

[@monbub]

this is a great idea!

[@boudewijnj.m.kegels5198]

@@monbub But not for YT itself. I use Adblock Plus and have them taken out automatically. Doesn't function on every site anymore since there are Adblock detection scripts running to annoy you. Also not every browser supports it the same way

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

"Brought to you by viewers like you. Thank you."

[@Hexagonian]

@@youtubeuniversity3638 iconic quote, big respect to PBS

[@pokechimp1544]

funding for schaff is provided by

[@dahorn100011]

The best youtubers are those who put chapters in their videos, so you can go to the next phase.

[@awkwardcultism]

If you use SponsorBlock, every KZbinr is like that.

[@gamagama69]

i really cant feel bad abt sponsorblock tbh. youtube premium integrated some features from it even like skipping to a "most popular" start place

[@DanKaschel]

You do you. But let's not pretend we'll get anything for free. KZbin is enormously expensive to run.

[@miketheperformer5972]

I'm a little sad that I had to scroll this far down in the comments to find someone else using it.

[@TwiliPaladin]

​@@DanKaschelHence why it's never had a single profitable year. Streaming services are inherently unprofitable without abandoning all sense of morality and sticking to legal grey areas.

[@TheLastestYo-KaiWatchFan9001]

@@miketheperformer5972 Yeah, fellow user of it here and this took a few minutes to find. Somewhat surprising and indeed moderately gloomy.

[@katecone2295]

It really sucks that youtube can demonitize videos for the stupidest things which basically forces a lot of youtubers to take these sketchy sponsors. It sucks seeing some of my favorite youtubers promote this stuff. Glad I found your channel. A sub from me.

[@lakerskid2013]

If I ever did somehow become big on here, there is no way I would ever sign a sponsorship with anybody at all because I’m not desperate for money like that. I personally run into sports betting, mobile games, and Internet security sponsorships the most but sports betting is the worst one.

[@mina86]

Even if YT demonetised no one ever, people would still take all the same sponsorships.

[@DanKaschel]

​@@mina86even if that is true, it's still reasonable to be sad that there is no righteous & tenable path

[@porehebdkdb1987]

I am glad that I got so desentized to all these, as a kid who's (obviously had no money), seeing all these "sponsorships" was just noise, and as an adult, I am never going to click on these sponsorships, especially after this video. And also, my deffinition of what friends are, amongst other things woild never allow me to trust "influencers" with my money.

[@amirmohamad2270]

A really terrible train of thought that I've seen from KZbinrs is that they basically say " we are gonna say we absolutely love this product, but our viewers should know we don't really mean it. Even if we literally say we mean it during the ad section".

[@DanKaschel]

Aka the fox 'news' defense

[@sunbleachedangel]

It's just a convenient cop out for them, they get all the benefits (money) and no drawbacks (responsibility). Just close your eyes and ears and scream "LA LA LA EVERYONE KNOWS SPONSORSHIPS ARE LIES ANYWAY LA LA LA" which is of course demonstrably false because if that was true, they wouldn't fucking exist to begin with

[@AutoCannonSaysHi]

Advertising is weird. Too much of a product being pushed, is a red flag. The more I see it, the more I'm pushed away from it. 90% of the time, the red flag is accurate. The product isn't worth the price, so they're making a butt load of money for poor products, which is funneled into advertising to boost that money making BS. Bad product making too much money, consumer ignorance, both feeding into this cycle of awful.

[@nadiaulrich]

The better help sponsorship is the reason why I don't really watch Cinema Therapy anymore. Loved that channel but it felt so weird watching it after they were sponsored by better help multiple times.

[@elise_g]

Same here

[@Kat-tr2ig]

Same here. Also, they reviewed the movie Labyrinth and were super anal about it, with very mean spirited comments about teen girls and calling her a brat, although the previous week they did another video about a teenage boy and praised him for the same things that they ridiculed Sarah for. Fortunately, the comment section did not disappoint and called them out on their bs. Plus, if the therapist guy ended up divorcing his wife, how good of a therapist could he actually be.

[@thecrazyswede2495]

@@Kat-tr2ig You're not going to love me for this, but the divorcing therapist might actually be a good one. If the therapists haven't gone through their own divorce, they have no real experience of how it is, and can only follow a script. Like an automobile driver who hasn't almost killed himself driving too tired doesn't have it in him to know in his nerves how dangerous it is. cheers! / CS

[@vibaj16]

same reason I no longer watch The Action Lab. Especially because he deletes all comments that mention Better Help.

[@newcarpathia9422]

Same. Unsubbed and hit "do not recommend" on their channel. What a disgrace for an actual therapist to take their rotten money.

[@gars129]

Influencers are essentially an improved version of the parasocial relationships with morning news shows or AM Talk Radio hosts our parents still often have. You see how the hosts ocasionally announce the birth of their kid or an illness live and relatively improvised. They appear during christmas episodes, and spend a lot of time just cracking jokes and being friends.

[@WooShell]

I have made it a habit to rank down companies with excessive sponsorship and ads in my purchasing decisions. Like, if you annoy me more, I'm going to buy less from you. By the current tally, it'll take until roughly 2038 before I will even consider getting NordVPN or playing Raid Shadow Legends.

[@qwertydog9795]

vpns arent a scam though. everyone should have one

[@WooShell]

@@qwertydog9795 They don't provide *any* benefit as long as you're not on an insecure network (e.g. at an airport or Starbucks). And they're fearmongering that "your ISP can collect your browsing habits", when the alternative is "your VPN provider can collect your browsing habits", and VPN providers are less strictly regulated than ISPs. Several leaks and police raids on VPN providers have already shown that "we don't log anything" is a lie in most cases. They log and sell whatever data they can, to supplement the income from those "90% off superdeal" sales. Also, that constant advertising for "you can use VPNs to watch Netflix in other countries" is what got Netflix to actually start cracking down on VPN usage (or rather, the movie studios forcing Netflix to do so).. had they shut up about that "feature", we could still enjoy using it.

[@Berkham1995]

Which companies advertised the most and the least?

[@Storm411z]

@@qwertydog9795Surfshark? an alternative vpn?

[@Velereonics]

Better help is just conceptually bad like corporatized mental health care that you can do through text ... with a psychologist who's probably paid way less than they would make if they could afford to rent a practice and they are just like churning through people like they literally have 60 minutes exactly and then you need to get the f*** off so that they can go talk to someone else Not to mention if you've ever been in Psych Care like severe Psych Care it doesn't work if the person can't see you like they have to see what your demeanor is like they have to see if you are taking care of yourself because it's pretty obvious when someone's not and if you start to deteriorate it's visually very obvious whereas in your voice and your text messages it will not be as obvious so you just have to be in front of someone

[@DaveTexas]

I’ve only ever tried one product that was sponsoring KZbin videos - Magic Spoon. I bought some boxes of their cereal. It was disgusting. The cereal tasted NOTHING like the brand-name cereals they were attempting to imitate. I discovered that every KZbinr who told me that Magic Spoon tastes exactly like the full-sugar cereals was LYING! That put an end to any desire I ever had to try any product I saw a KZbinr peddling.

[@cockatoo010]

Magic Spoon is apparently very hit or miss. Either delicious or you'd be more satisfied with eating the box. Can't trust a company that inconsistent

[@chriswest6988]

I've seen similar stuff in actual stores and it just sounded impossible. Keto-friendly cereal is like saying low-fat cooking oil. You can make cereal without a bunch of sugar, but if it doesn't have carbs, it's not made out of cereal.

[@BlueSpams]

A coworker bought some recently out of curiosity, she hadn’t even heard of it before it was on shelves. Said it was like she was eating mulch and let me try some. And I can back up it indeed tastes like wood shavings or mulch

[@matthewbarabas3052]

you were fooled by the ads in the first place? wow.....

[@Thandi123]

You know your business strategy is good when it references the guys who lost WWII.

[@Asmodis4]

even funnier is that the brits invented the idea of "Blitzkrieg", they only thought it would be to expensive to implement it on the battle field. look here for more Info: "Cautionary Tales Ep 6 - How Britain Invented, Then Ignored, Blitzkrieg"

[@thecrispymaster]

To be fair, it did work for Germany initially, and the UK has geographic factors that make the strategy less viable than for countries with land borders with their neighbours.

[@kenon6968]

@@Asmodis4the Russians Brits and Germans came up with the idea more or less simultaneously, just one of those countries had snazzy uniforms and the chance to apply it first against a bunch of bush league armies, so everyone's super impressed with their military acumen.

[@glidershower]

>who lost ww2 *...humanity?*

[@wrightmf]

@@thecrispymaster The concept of jumping way ahead of supply lines, securing an area then hope that supply line will establish. Sounds like what airborne units do, sometimes it works (Operation Overlord), sometimes not (Operation Market Garden). We see that in businesses though most fail to establish a solid business model. Interesting that Uber and AirBNB secured their business though I think both are sketchy, but no way a government will be able to regulate them.

[@42Porter]

Observing how so many KZbinrs that make well researched, thoughtful often helpful and healthful content will choose to harm their audiences and destroy their credibility by promoting these sponsors has been eye opening. It’s getting harder and harder to trust anyone on this site. At this point I’d be a fool if I did.

[@gdutfulkbhh7537]

I think we all knew that Raycons would have awful sound quality, simply because they felt the need to advertise them so very hard.

[@Jokoko2828]

I've made it a habit to write off any product that needs youtubers to advertise it.

[@Obsidian8R]

"yeah, ill just stick with my wired headphones thank you very much"

[@concinnus]

@@Jokoko2828 Or Dr. Dre, for that matter.

[@dglcomputers1498]

When's the last time Sennheiser or Beyerdynamic needed to advertise on YT?, people know your going to get something acceptable for the price paid from them and people know who they are already. No need to to try and tell people your crap product is good if it's a genuinely good product from a well known decent manufacturer.

[@TheeChiv]

@@dglcomputers1498Sennhieser not only has advertised there products, using celebrity to legitimise their brand, but have also sponsored events to get their name out there. What on earth are you on about.

[@Nortonius_]

very nostalgic seeing the footage of early, pre monetized, pre slick YT. nice video!

[@Micro-Econ-YT]

Annoying orange may not be Oscar worthy cinema but it certainly gave me a good chuckle as a kid

[@thecrazyswede2495]

@@Micro-Econ-YT Marshmallow Murders. cheers! / CS

[@spartan8705]

The only sponsors that I can think of having seen non-YT ads for are tech brands who sponsor tech channels like LTT, GamersNexus, or Hardware Unboxed AMD, Intel, MSI, Asus Big, established names who pay to push their new products in a market where buying used items is fairly commonplace and a huge money saver

[@normalchannel2185]

Yep.

[@monicahoger]

Doesn't LTT have somewhere on their forum where they explicitly show the types of sponsorships they WON'T work with either?

[@XGD5layer]

​@@monicahogeryes, the "LMG sponsor do not work with list"

[@kaydog890]

LTT / LMG is the ad.

[@lunarvvolf9606]

Yeah well here is to building pcs using only new parts never once been burned by some shady crypto bozo liquidating their stock of heavily used shitware and zero doubts as to the validity of the warranties either. Peace of mind is a wonderful thing.

[@Crossark1]

One of my favorite ways of running ads is done by Some More News. They didn’t always go out of their way to subtly cast doubt on their advertisers’ claims, but they also didn’t hide their genuine disgusted reaction to, say, the taste of AG-1. Now, they make it very clear when they’re being told to convey a sentiment that they don’t necessarily agree with using lines like, “Our sponsors tell us to say that [insert dubious claim here].” It really makes the viewer aware of how sketchy the sponsors are.

[@gregorammann7147]

Still, you need to realize that it's an advertisement, not an honest product review. AG1 was shown the video before and they figured they will make money from it so they gave it their ok. I agree that this way of doing sponsors is more transparent. I think many people do not realize how much influence the advertiser has on the content of the "sponsored" segment.

[@shingshongshamalama]

@@gregorammann7147 Whenever someone says "this is not a scripted segment" or says something that SOUNDS personalized? That's a script. That's definitely a script.

[@Avendesora]

This is even more obvious now that they have Ground News and they get to say they sought them out

[@wednesdaybell3062]

I'm amazed that AG1 is STILL willing to give them money. I guess people must still be buying that shit despite the ad effectively being anti-marketing.

[@Lacewise]

@@shingshongshamalama the one I don’t understand is “sponsors don’t dictate the rest of the video” when I know of several cases of an influencer mentioning they got in trouble in a brand deal for doing a different video than the one discussed or changing the approved script even when it’s not the ad read. People have been honest about it before and anyone who’s ever taken a marketing class, read up about paid promotion, or has an interest in the history of tv (so everyone who watched 30 Rock) knows it’s an obvious lie. That’s a lot of people!

[@bs_blackscout]

As someone who had a bad regular therapist from a regular clinic I can't imagine what types of "therapists" exist in BetterHelp. Screw them. You don't know the type of damage a bad therapist can do.

[@IxilPierce]

Better help was exposed years ago- right here on KZbin.

[@LadySnowfaerie]

The only KZbin sponsor I ever subscribed to and found usrful was Babbel, because I found the daily reminder of "you haven't studied German yet today, here's some stuff to do" helpful. I used to use Duolingo before that, but the leaderboards made it too stressful. I can't say I'm fluent, but it helped me brush up on my high school German.

[@chriswest6988]

One of my favorite ever content creator ads is the McElroy brothers going so far off script that they imply Babbel supported Klingon (they did not) and stood in open defiance of judeo Christian god (more factually ambiguous, but they denied it).

[@dee3246]

Freut mich das zuhören! Viel Spass beim Deutsch lernen

[@zacharygustafson8714]

@@dee3246 Ja, meinen lerner deytch mucho gusto.

[@think_like_a_fish]

This is slightly unrelated, but one of the worst offenders on YT to me is the NFL. When you watch a recap of the recent games you get 3 or 4 ad breaks in a 12-15 minute video. The first one plays at almost exactly the 1:00 mark. The video is barely started and all of a sudden you get interrupted. Then 4 minutes later you're interrupted again. And 4 minutes later, again! It's not like the NFL is lacking in money, either! I know of no other channel that crams that many ad breaks into their videos. A college football game recap might have one ad break in a video of similar length, yet the NFL puts in 3 or 4 ads.

[@flux.aeterna]

They’re trying to replicate the revenues they once got from cable viewers

[@h2o2630]

As weird as it is I miss when ads actually advertised? If that makes any sense, it all feels so shallow now.

[@ARStudios2000]

What would you mean by that?

[@cascadianrangers728]

I haven't just fallen off the turnip wagon and I can normally smell a scam from a mile away and I've always known that influencers are pedaling absolute crap, but you explained all the reasoning and facts behind my instinctual gut reaction really really well and I appreciate it

[@tranmthu]

And this is why I have Sponsorblock. Sponsored segments get skipped automatically so I've not seen sponsored content in videos in quite a while.

[@katenpp]

You may have just changed my life

[@matthewbarabas3052]

does it actually work as advertised?

[@tranmthu]

@@matthewbarabas3052 it does! you can set it to automatically skipping sponsored content or just show a button for you to click (some people do make funny ad segments). it can also skip intro and outro segments, non music parts in music videos, and some other things. I use it in a combination with ublock origin (on PC) or with revanced (on mobile) so I've not seen a whole ad on youtube in years.

[@s.v.berezin1562]

My father has a maxim: "If the product was that good, they wouldn't be going out of their way to advertise it." It's a good principle to apply, even if everyone advertises anyway.

[@mitchjohnson4714]

Great pitch, too. I have now subscribed, banishing you to the nether realm of channels that will absolutely never show up on my recommendations.

[@liquidl5380]

2:09 - 2:44 There is a niche in the tech hobbies (gaming, astrophotography, astronomy) where you see more traditional "here's a brand that is sponsoring our videos/providing review copies of gear" etc. Not sure if that extends to hobbies outside these tech niches tho. Most consumers aren't putting a ton of thought into what monitor is best or what graphics card to purchase to play games etc. And astronomy is a very narrow audience to begin with. But because of that you're not gonna see them outside of these niches.

[@thenorseman8964]

i was just about to post something similar, except I haunt contractors, builders, HVAC / electrician / plumbing channels and woodworking ones as well, and they often do the same thing. A big name brand like Milwaukee or DeWalt or even more industry standard (obscure to us, but known in the construction business like for home insulation or siding) brands will donate products to the channels and then they'll usually just drop a very brief comment like, "...and we'd like to thank our sponsors over at Philips Electric for their generosity in donating all of the lighting fixtures we're installing today..." and along those lines. So, not as in-your-face as a one or two minute long interruption with the channel grandly extolling the virtues of this unknown product, but it's still there. Oh, and more often than not, there is an affiliate link provided "Just in case" you want to buy the latest 12 volt thingamagic from the well-known company, almost always from Amazon.

[@katrinabryce]

I think those sort of brands would previously have advertised in trade magazines, but those don't really exist any more.

[@corjade9217]

Also there's a lot of gaming companies (like legitimate game companies) sponsoring semi big names like sega is quite fond of it I've seen a lot of creators being sponsored for the new sonic game or atlus new rpg it's honestly really cool considering they're genuinely good games.

[@kirbwarriork3371]

9:50 I don't think there is a "kind of" here. They are taking a problem and making it bigger, they are actively supporting someone selling a scam. If they don't know it's a scam (or other problem), that's negligence (it's rarely hard to find the problems) and if they know it's a scam then they are in turn scammers. They know how their audience reacts to their words and they are using this to push product into the audience's hands.

[@qarnos]

It used to drive me up the wall whenever an episode of Sesame St was sponsored by the number 7.

[@andershoff6378]

It's like the line from My Chemical Romance's Disenchanted. "So I could watch all my heroes sell a car on tv."

[@ToastedHeadcrab]

Thank god sponsorblock exists

[@Lycaon1765]

Thank Loki for KZbin revanced!

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

I just always skip manually.

[@TheRealMeowMeow01]

​@@Lycaon1765and all forks with different set of features

[@SimuLord]

I finally added that to Firefox last week. How I didn't think to do it before, well, I can kick my old self for that.

[@vibaj16]

it's not that hard to just press L a few times

[@RememberingGames]

I now have PTSD from the phrase "but before we start..."

[@polychronistheo]

Ok, this the best comment so far! Can't roll my eyes enough every time they start their generic speech about their amazing sponsor. Thanks for making me laugh! PTSD indeed.

[@jays.6843]

The only sponsored product I've ever gotten was a Ridge Wallet, and honestly, it's a pretty damn good wallet. It's just overpriced.

[@Mizai]

they extrude that piece of aluminum for $2 its way way overpriced

[@davidstruck8109]

1:25 guhhh thanks for reminding me about that guy

[@polskabalaclava]

Who is he? I’m unfamiliar with him

[@davidstruck8109]

@polskabalaclava I don't even remember his name but for a while you saw that video where he's talking about his cars and it turned out to be a crypto scam

[@BadDriverrr]

@@davidstruck8109zero surprise here

[@gordahnculous]

His name is Tai Lopez, and especially in the mid 2010s, his advertising was nearly everywhere on KZbin and was constantly memed on

[@polskabalaclava]

@@davidstruck8109 ah ok

[@lukaszspychaj9210]

No way you put Hello Fresh and NordVPN on the list of 'approved' sponsors

[@Mafuraai]

This is what I was thinking 😬 I mean I don't know the stuff about NordVPN, but Hello fresh is well known for their sketchy and unethical practices, definitely fits the youtube sponsor architype. Maybe it would've been a good idea to check the background of those companies before claiming that they're somehow better

[@matthewbarabas3052]

blacklist him, too. hes a sellout.

[@ByiLHS]

Idk what I did, but at least my ads have been the local Honda dealership for a while lol

[@AndreasMSchroeder]

So the editing from 1:38 to 1:45 going „FTX“->“Depression“(->“FTX“) was pretty subtle, but then at 2:35 including a Prime bottle in the „one off novelty purchases“ category, that’s absolutely savage.

[@aimeucuzinho]

You're right at the end there, Mr. Micro. I am very likely to click on videos that claim they are exposing YT sponsor scams. Good video; cheers!

[@Peasham]

My favorite sponsor's gotta be betterhelp cuz you instantly know "oh this youtuber's a scumbag"

[@mangomage33]

A couple people I follow did a couple sponsor reads from them years ago, and then never again. I wonder why.

[@mittsverigeurbanisten]

I knew it was something fishy about this! I have always HATED sponsor segments! The ones I hate the most are those who starts to sound like a worrying negative turn on the actual contents and gradually fades into a commercial. I don't only get the video interrupted, I also feel myself so fooled. It should be instant delete on all accounts who do that!

[@manyyoumas]

i feel bad for creators because youtube’s backwards rules have continually made it hard for them to earn money off videos they created, but at the same time… in the past couple weeks alone i’ve had to unsubscribe from a couple channels i liked because their ads were taking up so much of the video that it was actually taking up a decent fraction of the video length. if i see a 45 min video uploaded but literally 7-8 minutes of that is sponsorships or promoting your stuff, then i feel extremely cheated as a viewer. my time was wasted and i feel disappointed that the video length is not nearly as much as i thought it was. i want creators to make money but i’m also not going to sit there and be sold a product for an informerical length of time. it almost always cuts into the video topic at the worst time and ruins any flow or cohesion the narrator has. i’ve started to just skip through the beginning parts of peoples videos by default, which is a shame because they could have put decent work into it. but if i see more than one sponsor i’m skipping the vid

[@jayl5032]

Adblock dude. You dont have to unsub. Get a browser or extension. Just look into it a little, dont just give up.

[@Holey2662]

sponsor block extension on top lol

[@kenon6968]

Anyone who uses KZbin without an ad or sponsor block is a fool

[@sponge4270]

@@kenon6968and*

[@arsonisticdelphox807]

​@@kenon6968i use premium because I can't find a non shady ad blocker

[@frankmckenneth9254]

@@kenon6968 yeap. You're wasting your time honestly, you won't buy these products. So why are you making yourself watch the ads?

[@JamesTK]

@@kenon6968 YT Premium + Sponsorblock here... Sucks there isn't an easy equivalent for ios

[@zizzleberries]

9:38 the code in this stock footage is from minecraft lol

[@janedoe-ld5gt]

This doesn’t touch on beauty influencers being sponsored by brands, and the ridiculous amount of pr they get. I’ve seen beauty influencers sponsored by actual stores like Sephora before. Not to mention the recent trend of people being sponsored by actual gambling/slot machine apps.

[@theventuracountyrailfan]

My biggest problem with sponsorship is the length. KZbinrs make like 4 minutes of content, 3 minutes of sponsorship and 1 min of intro/outro in an 8 minute video. Also relevancy: some bad mobile game in a video about a deep topic. The worst is when I see small/medium channels like coaster studios taking betterhelp.

[@skiedev]

It feels like a fever dream that better help is back..

[@TheGameHoard]

I've become so trained to skip ahead in videos when hearing familiar sponsor names that I had to hold myself back when he started listing them

[@onthewater4020]

There is one category you haven't touched on - actual product sponsorships. What I see most often, in the "weird builder of things" type KZbin channels, are things like power banks, solar equipment, that kind of thing.

[@sirBrouwer]

in those cases I always wonder if you see the sponsored product outside of the advertisement part. Like if they are really liking a product you might just see them use it of the blue when they are not aiming the camera at it dead on. I mean there are cases that people really are endorsing it. A guy I follow is more or less a walking add for a company however they don't pay them he is the one paying.

[@SimuLord]

The more niche the KZbin segment, the more it makes sense for really niche real-world brands to go where the customers are, so it's kind of a win-win in that case. General interest KZbin channels or those that are adjacent to a media segment that's well-represented on traditional media-cooking channels come to mind, so do sports sites-tend to attract the usual garbage advertisers.

[@SetsunaTheFandom]

I do spot this one on sim racing-related channels I think. Usually they'd advertise a sim rig / peripheral. Also Aidan Millward did one watch sponsorship

[@punchdrunkassassin]

There's one channel I watch that does a lot of projects with resin, so a resin company reached out to provide them with product. They use the resin normally and pretty much let it speak for itself, rather than making every video an awkward ad read. Just make sure the logo faces the camera and everyone wins (they also openly disclose the partnership, which is rare and wonderful to see). It's basically a symbiotic relationship. I'd VASTLY prefer if most sponsorships went this way. It's way more organic, and an overall better fit with the audience and content. On the other hand, a different creator I watch really likes energy drinks, one specific kind in particular, and always has one at the ready in every video. But it's in a glass, and they don't mention the brand name. Apparently they asked, but the company wouldn't sponsor them. That would have been such a perfect and seamless opportunity though, especially as the creator is clearly going to drink it anyways and people are always asking about it in the comments. More companies need to clue in!

[@JacktheLightningRipper]

Another thing I believe is at play is that KZbin is generally not paying creators very well unless they have multi-million subscriber channels, especially if said channels make them money as well. So others have to look for other places to continue gaining revenue, like channel memberships, merchandise, Patreon, etc.

[@matt_9112]

Woodworking channels having promo links to well established brands is like the only counter-example I can think of. And that's very niche at best.

[@dityacivilizacii]

Ground News and Nebula are probably the only sponsors I can see myself using

[@57thorns]

Blitzscaling is an interesting new word for a Ponzi scheme. Also, the insight that blitzkrieg is about outrunning your supply lines is interesting, because not all fast advancement are blitzkrieg, if your supply lines can keep up.

[@TimoRutanen]

It's not exact a ponzi though. A ponzi funds the whole thing with fees from new people while siphoning as much money off the top as possible before it collapses, and blitzscaling is trying to grab a market before the competitors or legislators can react to shut it down. An ethically questionable strategy nonetheless, I'd say.

[@tottorookokkoroo5318]

these shitty products have nothing to do with a ponzi scheme.

[@MushookieMan]

But they didn't outrun their supply lines. That would be a terrible strategy

[@KatherineFtw]

@@MushookieManThey did in both the Battle of France where Rommel famously had to turn around and got a french division to surrender because they didn’t know he was out of supply on the way back, and most importantly in Operation Barberosa where the german army outran it’s supply line so bad that most of the army lacked winter coats and the units at the front of the spearhead ran out of ammunition and fuel.

[@ronintje7647]

The most funny things are "financial youtubers" who act as if they have a clue about finance promoting scams as their sponsors. It shows how terrible they are at their job as they can't even find out their sponsors are scams. People, don't trust any sponsors on youtube and certainly don't trust youtubers who are sponsored by gambling and finance sponsors.

[@ottz2506]

Just don't trust any of them, especially the forex/zero commission trading and 'here's how Jenny made 34K in a month using this simple method you don't want to miss' ones.

[@itryen7632]

And people still defend them for taking those sponsors. "It's good money!" You're the reason the world is in such a terrible place.

[@julianmartinez3048]

If I had a company, I would never advertise in youtube. Everybody would think it's a scam. Unless my company was a scam, of course.

[@christophsiebert1213]

2:42 I immediately thought of Manscaped and Helix. I wouldn't put them in any of those 3 categories. Maybe novelty, depending how often you buy a new matress or razor, but I would say they are more high-quality luxury products, than novelty products.

[@jonas_the_lost]

All I will say is "RAID Shadow Legends"

[@soja_milk0790]

They kind of are a subscription model

[@christophsiebert1213]

@@soja_milk0790 Not mainly. I'm sure both have subscription models available. But I'd think Helix has some special offerings beside the one-time mattress purchase then. And for Manscaped you probably have a subscription to regularly get refills of your shaving cream and other consumables. But their main product is not a subscription.

[@christophsiebert1213]

​@@jonas_the_lost I'd say gacha games are kinda subscriptions. As most of them are either P2W or very heavily want you to regularly pay money. Unlike Helix or Manscaped, Gacha games use every trick in the book for that

[@eightcoins4401]

"High quality, luxury"? Its literally generic cheap razors they slapped their company trademark on Its classic black labelling.

[@OctopusEight]

I still think this is a 100k subscriber channel im watching lmao

[@GundersenMarius]

This channel has 581 subscribers???

[@OctopusEight]

@@GundersenMarius its a reference to the production quality

[@renevuurwalt368]

Untill the final note i thought this had at least 150k views and you were a larger channel. Keep up the work

[@Micro-Econ-YT]

Well maybe one day, but for now it’s crazy to me that I have got 1,000 views so quickly so thanks for checking out the channel 😊

[@joshgould2707]

​@@Micro-Econ-YTI might be wrong but I think you might have somewhat caught the algorithm with this one, I usually watch similar content to this & it was pushed into my feed - best of luck.

[@skatee99]

Thank you SO much for exposing this disgusting scam. This is why people are directly subscribing to content creators' channels or going to other options like Discord. KZbin like so many other bloated business models, will begin to crumble under scrutiny, no matter how big they think they are. There ARE other options.

[@777idkineedausername]

What exactly makes it a "scam". Some of the sponsors are sure, but the inherent concept of advertising is not.

[@skatee99]

That's what I meant, bogus sponsors, not the concept of sponsorship itself. There are, for example, many good videos on how bogus "Better Health" is, a scan. Yet, there are still videos posted with them as a sponsor and, saying how great they are.

[@Gen_-6012]

The KZbinr Neytirix incorporates sponsers in a really creative way. She makes it part of a story.

[@shamuclone]

every time i see a sponsor i might like, i just buy from the competitor that doesnt spend money on ads and instead focus on making the product good

[@kenon6968]

Advertising is the lifeblood of business bro otherwise how do you find out that a company exists?

[@dieucondorimperial2509]

@@kenon6968Word of mouth. Your local bakery, Wikipedia, Linux … everything doesn’t rely on ads, especially quality products. Plus marketing campaigns aren’t here so people know you exist, it’s mainly to buy your trust and attention. With a bit of digging, you can always find people doing product comparisons with little known, better quality products and services.

[@erxxxx]

@kenon6968 that is what all those parasites in marketing industry want you to think, not the actual truth

[@MissInformer]

​@@kenon6968to genuinely answer your question, you look online and in stores in your local area. Many sponsorships sell you a product for a problem they created in their marketing, or attempt to offer a product that should be more heavily regulated if advertised a different way. Examples of that are products like keeps, which tries to prey on people's insecurity about losing their hair and then offer you the solution: their product. But how do they market a hair loss prevention product when those have already been available from the professionals you should be taking these medications with the consultation of? By removing the prescription requirement and selling an over the counter product while claiming it is made by or under the direction of medical professionals. And that's just one more obvious example. Other products play into people's addictions and the desire to quit them, like Füm. They use the same shady marketing other products of the past have by vaguely claiming it can help stave off bad habits and additions. They are products the general person doesn't need. If you see a sponsorship for a product people use regularly, like kitchen supplies, then it wouldn't be difficult to find those items (even if by a different maker) at a store near you or online where you can see reviews from multiple sources. That's the age we live in unfortunately. It's the evolution of the as seen on TV products of the 90s and early 2000s.

[@Swarm_]

@@kenon6968 Doctors aren't allowed to advertise were i live, but i can still find one.

[@jeremiahstarke4516]

The production quality is high for such a low sub count.

[@Micro-Econ-YT]

Appreciate that!

[@Htbaa]

The voice over audio seems to be clipping though :-(.

[@Jono4174]

10:30 so I guess we won’t be getting a “subscription is always a scam” video after all.

[@user-fc2wi9no4h]

I just can’t how nothing is really “free” anymore. I miss also the sincerity of creators. Now it just feels like everyone is doing youtube for money, it became their job and it shows

[@matthewbarabas3052]

yup. those people absolutely suck at their real jobs, so they do the one thing they arent extremely bad at.

[@DiabeetusPrime]

My personal law of advertising is “any product or service that is advertised on any social media platform is a scam”.