A Deep Dive Into Established Titles... 

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A $50 donation to the National Parks Foundation would go a lot farther in protecting natural land than contributing to the purchase of already pristine Scotish land

"You will receive a unique plot number" Sounds as legit as owning an NFT.

I was 100% led to believe you could legally use “lord/lady” based on their advertising.

In the ads (by the company and by RU-vidrs) using the words “legally”, “officially”, and “Established” is completely counter to it being a gag gift. I don’t know how anyone can defend this deceptive marketing practice, even if the product claim is outlandish.

youtubers literaly told us we could put lord/laird/lady legally on credit cards and the such but one guy tried to book a flight as a lord and was denied

In the UK we don't view this as a novelty gift, it's just a scam because everyone here knows full well that it's bs. It isn't marketed as a novelty gift. It's specifically worded in a way that makes you sound like you gain a title, the company is even called Established Titles. Honorifics and titles are not the same thing.

The big problem is that all the creators never once said this is a gag gift. You had to find it on your own in some obscure screen once after you've clicked.

i did a slightly 'deeper' dive into them. their site states they, and i quote... "Every Lordship or Ladyship title pack contributes to the preservation and protection of woodland areas in Scotland." their main page also states "all while simultaneously preserving and protecting woodland in Scotland." I e-mailed Trees for the Future, and they responded saying that indeed Established Titles has donated enough over the years for them to plant 2 million trees, but ALL of them were planted in Africa. not a single one in Scotland. looking into the business donation rates, TftF charges $0.25 per tree planted, at 2 million trees, ET has donated $500,000 to plant trees NOT IN SCOTLAND like they claim. I also e-mailed ONETREEPLANTED, and they responded that indeed ET has donated for tree plantings, but declined to state how much, how many trees or their planting location. looking into ONETREEPLANTED, they state they plant trees where they are needed, which kind of excludes forested countries like Scotland for the most part. i would wager that the trees planted from OTP were also in drier climates as well. the worst part is, donors have ZERO input on where the trees from either 501c3 company plants them at. to claim ET is donating to be "to the preservation and protection of woodland areas in Scotland.", is an outright lie yet again from ET.

Finally I can call myself a Lord of the Muta Crack Den. Thank you Muta

Just because it's a "gag gift" doesn't mean they are free to make false claims in all their advertising

We now live in a world where the title of “lord” has less weight behind it than “discord mod”

Established Titles has changed their website drastically (check the wayback machine yourself). They purposefully made it ambiguous knowing that most people won’t do their due diligence (read the fine prints, research legality, etc)

I think my biggest problem is that these companies seem to be purposefully trying to mislead people. Sure, the _legal_ wording is mostly fine, but it's written in a way that will intentionally confuse people, especially when it comes to the titles.

My grandfather sat in the House of Lords way back when. If I went to him and showed him one of these certificates, he'd probably have the most eloquent way of telling me I'm an idiot. 😂

The real gag gift mentioned briefly in the video is Kamikoto Knives. The gag is that you can tell people you bought some really nice kitchen knives when they are reportedly made from 420J2 steel just like the cheapest kitchen knives.

It was never marketed as a gag gift my friend. Nobody would buy it if they knew they were paying for a meaningless piece of paper. They clearly added these notes saying their product was a gag gift to their website AFTER Scotts exposé.

Protip: If you want to gift someone a similar gag gift, make a pdf and print it. Costs way less than whatever ET is charging for what is basically a pdf. 👍

Whilst it is a bit of a tangent, these “tree planting” initiatives in Scotland have been very controversial; causing ecological harm due to the planting of non-native trees, these initiatives being used as tax dodges or a way for wealthy people to virtue signal and a hugely flawed political campaign to appeal to the public. Non of these are ecologically beneficial.

Speaking of Kamikoto knives, there's a great video by Shadiversity showing just how cheaply made and overpriced they are. It's highway robbery disguised as a luxury product (which was made with one of the cheapest available grades of steel).

What sucks is their terminology sounded pretty legit to a laymen like me. I almost got one for the parents as a cute gift. I’m going to use the money to seed local wildflowers in their yard instead.

I'm not sold on the "gag gift" excuse because I saw a lot of these ads and most of them did not advertise it as a gag gift. But I also think creators should be able to trust their media group to properly vet the companies. That's what you hire them for. Edit: The other thing is, if it's a gag gift, what's the plot of land for? It can only be to make people think they legally get an actual title. I also checked the homepage...and yep, no sign that it's a gag gift.

"Buy a REAL 1x1 foot of land and become a REAL Scottish Lord/Lady!" Pretending that's not the ad we were constantly seeing and pretending it's not a scam is honestly gross gaslighting. I don't believe they planted a single tree until they film themselves doing it.

From all the sponsor segments I've seen from all of the various creators I've watched, I never got the impression that it was a gag gift. I thought the idea of doing it was pretty dumb (imo), but at no point was it even on my radar that they weren't serious about the fact that you could become a lord/lady. I could understand if the sponsor segments were presented in a silly/sarcastic way that even hinted that this isn't to be taken seriously. But from all the creators I've seen, it was always played completely straight. They (established titles) knew what they were doing. I doubt they missed all of the RU-vidrs that insinuated that it was totally real. I feel like they're only now backtracking because of the backlash.

In the US, the constitution specifically says that titles of nobility are illegal for US citizens to have, so you definitely wouldn't be able to have one of the titles on your government docs

I always viewed it as a gag gift-type concept, but the company didn't present themselves as such. The prompts they give are intentionally misleading, having promoters completely avoid the term. Many people hear the words "legal" and "legally" and associate them with authentication. Once the sponsor uses those terms, they become dubious as "gags". To equate the two is to purposefully confuse some who don't understand the concepts surrounding land ownership or even gag gifts (some people don't understand for one reason or another). Also, the moment they start attaching themes of helping the environment and other topics many are passionate about, it begins to lean into preying on people's emotions. Yes, people shouldn't act on emotions, but it's a very human thing and plays into the adage of "hindsight is 20/20". We as humans are vulnerable creatures when our morals and values are brought into discussion. They knew adding these as incentives would lure in those who knew it was a gag gift because "well, it doesn't feel as much of a waste of money because at least I'm doing something good". Many don't bother with gag gifts anymore because they're a waste of money to get a few minutes of humor. So, including the "help the environment" aspect is a tactic that, in my opinion, constitutes this as a scam and not an innocent gag gift.

They actually used the word "cancel" unironically in a professional letter! 😂

The only part I even had an issue with Established Titles is as all the ads saying it would give you an “Official” title.

I honestly don't get why fraud is so tolerated in people's consciousness. The feeling of being scammed is humiliating, some times traumatizing and, in scale, adds significant bitterness and suffering to the world. All these scammers should be in prison. The tolerance breeds more scam when we know we can get away with it. You can not balance scamming people with doing something legitimate and say, overall, not so bad. That's why they attach the charity to their crime in the first place, to make people say, 'well, not so good but look they did plant some trees'. Fucking no, that makes it even worse! You know I murdered 3 people but 99.99% of the days I kill noone and sometimes I help the poor, so, ya, could be worse, get off my back, I'm only human after all.

the "gag gift" excuse is super fucking funny to me bc in every established titles sponsorship i've ever seen (which is a lot since basically every youtuber was sponsoring them for a while) i never once got the vibe that it was a gag gift of any kind. it was presented as though it was completely serious.

I’m glad you’re an ‘influencer’ as much as we hate the term, who can be accountable for mistakes that you have made. You are a prime example of an influencer that people should look up to out of anybody. Thank you Mutahar. ;)

I thought Established Titles was a scam from the very first ad read I saw. It instantly reminded me of those old buy your own star scams.

I don't understand how it being a "gag gift" or "novelty item" is any sort of defense. Honestly sponsor takers who knew this and still tried to sell it, are even worse in my view. Owning 1 sq ft of land in Scotland and officially being recognized as a "lord" has no utility for most people, hence it being a somewhat amusing novelty. If you are literally just sending a random company some money for them to call you a lord, it being a "novelty" or "gag" is a criminal oversell. If anyone wants to send me 100$ I will personally call you a duke of Denmark, and if you send 200$ instead I will even print it on a piece of paper and send it to you, sounds good? No? But it is a funny gag gift!

the single biggest piece of evidence to me for the reality of this situation is finding out they are owned by the same company as Kamikoto knives, which could arguably be a worse scam than ET is. Shadiversity already made an hour long video about why they might be a scam but ill touch on the basics and recommend the video for specifics. Kamikoto knives sell for an insane premium their complete collection being 1099 dollars (which is also conveniently ALWAYS on sale down from over 7000 dollars as are all of their items). This next point is kinda a general watch out for type thing, the "Japanese Steel" marketing, This means NOTHING, pretty much all steels run at specific industry standards with different national names so any company trying to sell you a certain nations steel is kinda pulling the wool over your eyes with the one exception being Sheffield Steel. They also use Japanese Steel as a call to history which is to feed off the mythos of the steel used to forge katana when in reality japanese steels have historically been of lower quality than European, Middle eastern and generally speaking most steel. but when you dig deep enough you end up finding out that the steel they use is one of the lowest grade stainless steels you can get, which is fine for like a 10-20 dollar kitchen knife, these knives are selling at more than 10x that. one of the most important things for a kitchen knife is edge retention (the ability to stay sharp) Kamikoto knives fail at this when put up against a FREE kitchen knife, the sharpness is used as a selling point but again that's misleading yes they can get that sharp as can ANY piece of metal that has been sharpened (shad sharpens a metal ruler to show this) so like i said Edge retention is the key. They also seem to be manufacturing the knives in China not Japan as is implied through the whole Tradition thing and these knives are not known in Japan (another red flag to the mythos of Kamikoto). Ive said the main few points that i remember about kamikoto I implore anyone reading this especially someone with reach like Muta to maybe bring more attention to it even if its just a mention of Shads video.

The thing is a complete scam when their proclaiming you are an official land owner and lord or anyone can just print a piece of paper that'd equivalent to it. It was promoted seriously.

They've been sending creators a link to a defamatory video about Scott, just goes to show how they're willing to cover things up and lie against him

Something i find interesting, is that while they might be donating to an actual tree planting charity, those charity ask for a fraction of what ET charges for their plaques. Meaning that not only do they keep a majority of the money given to them, they're also elligible to tax refund for the money they give to those charity. Let that sink in for a moment. The title thing is just smoke and mirrors in the big picture and that's why they focus on defending that point in particular. Its a red herring to distract everyone from what they actually do with the money they get. This is just a massive fraud operation.

I had no idea this was a "gag gift" from seeing it on ads, goes to show that its not obvious to everyone that its "supposed to be a funny gift"

To be honest with you it always seemed like a novelty item to me. I literally did not know some people were taking Established Titles seriously lol.

You should dive back in and check to see if Established Titles is receiving money for carbon credits for keeping that same plot of land "pristine" and not developing it. That would take it to the next level and probably make this venture worth funding by the parent company.

Put Established Titles into the way back machine, the web page has changed a lot since the initial video came out

Since the first time Ive seen ET sponsors I thought to myself "darn, you could grant yourself a high end title just by buying a tiny random plot of land like its given away like candy?" It always seemed too good to be true and here we are

Mutahar owning up to everyone by not only apologizing but going in deep and exposing them as well. double W

apparently several people tried to visit the land they bought and were told it doesnt even exist as theirs and that using titles like lord etc. just got them into legal issues such as identity fraud

This always struck me as crazy. I mean, think about it. Everyone who owns a house (and thereby the plot that house is built on) would technically be a lord or lady if this was true. Has anyone ever heard of the millions of Scottish lords/ladies? I mean, if this was a true thing, everyone would know about it because most people in Scotland would be Lords/Ladies and it would mean nothing.

I have quite a long line of Welsh, Western English & French lords & marquis in my family tree, but as I understand it the title only passes to the first born & the lesser siblings usually end up becoming vicars(a lot of those in my family tree too) so the noble lines to me were broken throughout the 18th century.

I used to joke about starting one of these to issue a certificate and name a blade of grass in my yard for $10. That was back when the "name a star" gimmick was taking advantage of people who don't know how stars are named and recorded. Established Titles took it for reals, adjusted it for inflation and charges $50.

if we all learn something from this it really is this : If a company uses extensive Social Media advertisements its most likely shit or a scam.

Mutahar uses the phase “novelty gift” 47 times in this video, he uses the word “scam” twice. 😂

The reason why the general public didn’t think it was a gag gift is the way that you all would advertise it. With the words that clearly stated in your script “ it goes back to old Scotland laws” That owning land makes you a lord or lady. So that in itself saying that would make most people still get it legally legit especially with advertising that you could add the titles on to your driver license documents in a bunch of other things.

So they approved of all the ads that mention you can "legally" become a lord or lady? 🤔

Buying a plot from Established Titles makes you as much of a lord as Godrick from Elden Ring.

Because of all of these videos. Shadiversity popped up where he does a deep dive on the Kamitoto knives. A 53 minute video testing them. All to learn they are the cheapest steel that is allowed to be used to make knives. He even makes a knife out of a ruler. Entertaining watch

I understand why people have called out Established Titles for deceptive business practices, but I’m so disappointed at viewers now attacking content creators who have sponsorship segments in videos made BEFORE the exposé was published. So many of them are getting straight up attacked as a result of the video Scott made, but people need more time to find out the news and react accordingly.

The gag gift excuse is such a lie 💀

I never looked at the website myself because I wasn’t going to buy it but I honestly believed from the ad reads that you could use Lord officially in your name

Muta, the reason why they are down to invest in so many trees is because it counts as a tax write off for carbon offsets. Essentially, they are growing trees to justify emissions of producing their other products. Government reimburses them (or rather doesn't tax them) for the excess of their allocated carbon emission amount.

Been wanting people to talk about this thing for years now. Always bugged me seeing them pop up this time of year.

I think in the US all you’d need is to take $50 down to the local courthouse and fill out a name change form. Went to university with a guy who is now legally “Loyal Frisbee.” Can’t imagine “Lord Loyal Frisbee” would be too high a bar to climb.

I totally remember coming across this back in 2000-2001 the first time they got real traction with this novelty. The same concerns came up that time too concerning the planting of the trees and whatnot.

My parents bought me one of the plots on established titles, and a few months ago we took a trip to Scotland and took a stop at where the plot of land is. It was basically just a big forest that was gated off. I didn't see any trespasser signs or anything but there was a fence so obviously they didn't want you hopping it, and also there would be no way to know where your plot of land was. I was a little let down but I didn't really know what I expected to be honest. Also, I didn't really go on their website or research them or anything. I saw all the youtuber sponsorships and everything so I knew what it was, but I didn't research it before/after I got it. I feel like I did I wouldn't be as disappointed but I kinda doubt they would put "hey you know if you actually go to where your plot of land is you aren't gonna be able to know which one it is" or whatever. Maybe I went to the wrong side of the plot or something but it just felt strange that it was basically just a fenced off forest. As far as I know, they didn't designate a plot of land for me or anyone else.

"novelty gag gift" yet one of the selling points they have you read out is that you can legally change your title to lord or lady on *official* documents. When you're dealing with official documents, it stops being simply a gag. Besides, if it was just a gag, anybody could just print out a custom proclamation and have it framed for like under 50$ (under 10$ if you want to cheap out on the frame). The rest of the 100+$ could go to an actual charity.

Something I wonder and want an answer from the company for. Hypothetically, what happens when all the land has been "sold"? They advertised that you got one sq foot of your own land, and many RU-vidrs were selling the idea that you got a plot close to theirs. So what happens if all the plots of land get sold and other people want to buy one? Were they going to just shut down and tell people they have no more product to sell?

their commercials were very misleading - they should have disclaimers about their product because those annoying commercials constantly made it sound like u can do what they are joking about

saw dozens of sponsor spots for this, and no one was pitching it as a gag gift.

Funny that they have a connection to Kamikoto which was also revealed(by Shadiversity) to sell rather generic product that doesn't actually make sense.

What?? This was a “novelty” item? Of the dozens of these ads I have seen NONE indicated it was a novelty.

Completely sold out here, disappointing to see. Claiming to take responsibility and the next sentence is finding a way to shift the blame or make excuses. This was a blatant example of deceptive marketing.

None of the trees they donated towards were planted in Scotland like they said, that says everything about their response.

One of the main selling points is RU-vidrs telling people they can call themselves legally Lord or lady. But you can't. It doesn't matter how many times they call it a gag gift, if they are straight up telling people lies, then it's a problem.

For the longest time I thought the Established titles thing was some form of fraud, mainly because I live in the UK and stuff like this is normally considered a scam here. I always thought it was very weird that Muta, the person who is very critical of scams like tokens and nfts, promote something like this. Im glad to see him investigating it now atleast.

i was speaking with my mom about this and she brought up how a while back my father had put his plane tickets under some random african title. i don’t know the details but she said that he could just choose a title if he wanted it. sort of interesting with how they bring up plane tickets here, my mom says that you wouldn’t have to buy the land to call yourself a lord for that. he travels very often for work, so it wasn’t as though he got away with something, they just didn’t care

They wouldn’t have sold anything if they had RU-vidrs say “This is actually a fake document and you don’t even own land, and even if you did you still wouldn’t be given a special title by any government. You’re buying a piece of paper and a portion of our sales go to raise trees.”

There is a level of chad social media people who acknowledges their mistakes And there is Muta, who takes another level by digging into what he did wrong and their backgrounds

korilakkuma is just chilling on his desk, lying on his back looking at the moon and stars ✨

Let’s deep dive into it after accepting money and promoting it 😂🤡

About the whole title thing of being called a Lord, or Lady, to me It's not like as if they actually live in Scotland or how the actual people of Scotland feel about this and I'm surprised Scotland hasn't sued the company or something yet.

Kamikoto is based out of Hong Kong, China. They are Chinese knives. Scott pointed that out in his video.

Even tho it's a good video, I was hoping he would've gone more in detail with the rabbit hole of the "sister companies" Kamikoto and Deal Dash, because then the pieces really start fitting together why Established Titles and their whole umbrella are a scam. Also I don't know if they changed it, but didn't they charge ridiculous amount of money if you want the "certificate" to be printed and sent to you with a frame for like 100 $ or something like that +also paying separately IF you want a tree to be planted (which is never mentioned as a separate charge on the ads or sponsor contracts) so the biggest reasoning to buy this if you just want a tree to be planted is not true as well. This is why it's a scam.

my biggest gripe is when all the advertizing (especially the youtube sections) say "you can OFFICIALLY call you a Lord/Lady" ... then thats a flat out lie when they actually mean "you can joke about it". And just being its a novelty gift doesnt give you the right for borderline false advertizing. Its extremely unethical at best. also basically no one will actually know what a "souvenir plot of Land" legally means before buying a pack. And all of that shadieness was completely uncessesary as the actual cherity behind it seems to be legit.

They 100 percent advertised as you being able to use lord or lady on official documents.

Thanks for owning up to this stuff regarding the sponsors it just makes me respect you more

That G-Fuel blended perfectly, didn't even notice it!

I didn’t find it dry at all! Loved learning about Scottish title law!

I encourage you all to go watch Scott's recent video where he responds to this letter by Established Titles because he breaks down how E.T. basically lied in almost everything in their letter... they're literally defaming him, changing their website, etc.

One thing people forget is that no matter how tradition dictates, you need to be in the tradition group. In Medieval times owning a land doesn't make you a Lord, you're more like a knight serving under a Lord who gives you a plot of land. A Lord does own lands but it's not just a plot of land as it could be an entire community of villages which can be given to the Lord's knights and a Lord technically needs to be given the title by the king himself as a sign of vassalage.

Off topic but your Korilakuma plush in the background makes me genuinely so happy

Love the quake gameplay at the end

'Shadiversity' did a video about Kamikoto knives and how they're also essentially a rip off using the cheapest available steel for their knives etc...

So glad to be officially accepted as a Lord of the Muta Crack Den. Gonna gonna have them add that to my bachelor's now

I live in Florida, and I know we have a space for titles in our driver’s licenses. I am seriously considering adding Lady by presenting one of these as evidence, or at least giving it a try. Lol… If I do, I’ll be sure to let you know.

32:00 I had to rewatch this section multiple times, Because I thought I was going crazy hearing you say "Ladies & Gentleman" multiple times lol Like you forgot to edit it out 😂

Thank you mooda for allowing me to be the lord of the muta crack den, I deeply appreciate it. :)

FYI Kamikoto knives are a scam of it's own btw. Shadiversity made a vid on them couple months back where he looked into their knives, did research into materials, tech and tested them. It's basically crappy dollar store-grade knives sold at insane markup based on shoddy marketing.

I know some people will say it's not a scam because its "just a gag gift" but I dont really know what else you'd call it when someone is sold a title to a piece of land that they don't actually own, can't do anything with, and have zero actual control over. You're paying them for literally nothing. It's basically an NFT but with patches of grass on the other side of the world instead of a monkey jpg. It's fugazi, an "idea of ownership", which is a nice way of saying "absolutely nothing"

I got a whole 1 hour long podcast episode as an ad for this episode! wtf Muta?!!

Not a single RU-vidr advertised this as a gag gift and there are many people that made comments saying that from the sponsors they believed it had some form of legitimacy and bought this :/

As far as I'm concerned - you don't get to dismiss it as a gag gift if they make promises with contribution to charity or legal claims that aren't legally valid. When you pay to name a star - nobody claims to be using your money to charitably improve living conditions on the star.

“I get it, I expect to see my face in this situation in some capacity” *camera auto-adjusts Muta’s face out of focus*

If you want to buy someone a gag gift just buy them the classic pet rock. You get a nice rock and a joke book.