It's Time You Know What Some Companies Ask Us To Say In Reviews 

Things are only acceptable, until we stop accepting them.

I've been saving my thoughts to make a video similar to this. It's so important to not undervalue your reputation and your worth.

I appreciate your video. I started realizing a couple years ago that you have to listen to the way someone is "reviewing" a product. Often they will sneak in negative comments in positive ways. You have to really pay attention in many cases to the nuances to hear what a reviewer is really saying. I always appreciate when someone just flat out says, no they didn't like a particular product and why. That way I know what to watch out for and it might not be a deal breaker for me.

Not a day one buyer. Never have been. I do watch the RU-vid releases but I usually wait for real world reviews to pop up that talk about the problems. Hopefully others are catching onto this fact and being smarter with their hard earned money. The temptation is real with people relying on these companies for their paycheques. Way wasier to do a bunch of product reviews and cash in. Thanks for making this video and glad to have you in the ZCam community.

Love this 🙌

Thanks for this video. I would say we can't called a paid video a "review" I know it may be splitting hairs but a review should be as unbiased as possible. I see many creators do call that out in paid videos. I'm not surprised that companies act as they do and thanks for calling this out you are right we as creators need to stand up that is the only way we can affect change. Cheers.

Watched the whole video through, I appreciate the honesty and being upfront and agree. If a company believes they are making a good product they shouldn’t have to tell you to not say bad things. And even more, they shouldn’t make your payment contingent on sales through affiliate links. Thanks for this one!

I don't know how and why your video found me but I'm sure glad it did. I've been noticing how reviews have been so biased lately. Sometimes it's like one company can't do anything wrong while others can't get anything right, or they will make excuses for company A even if tests show a different story. I can't trust reviews and fortunately it became apparent early for me before doing something stupid. I hope your video reaches out to more people. You earned my like and comment.

Some reviewers have solved this issue by defining their own terms and conditions, then sending those to the manufacturer. Key among those conditions, the right to honestly describe any issues, and that the manufacturer has no right to preview the review before it is posted. If the manufacturer truly wants your review, they'll agree. If not, ignore them.

Just want to say, I applaud what you're doing here. The influencer marketing model only works if there is trust, and the sort of contract you expose here is a trend that only serves to undermine that trust. It is an example of the sort of exploitative, irresponsible marketing that really needs to be exposed for what it is. I hope you start a trend.

Good on you Sidney, totally with you on this. At the same time, I'd say much of this contractual stuff is a carry-over from companies' traditional advertising contracts where this sort of reputational protection was the norm. I may be wrong, but hear me out. We see this within my field of professional services, where procurement and legal departments carry over processes for building multi-billion dollar infrastructure to me running a meeting for them. It's a sledgehammer for a nut, but they're just working from their framework of reality. We get contracts saying all our IP used with them will belong to them alone (like, no way, unless the contract has 6 or 7 extra zeros on the money...), but as soon as we challenge a client over this sort of thing, the reply is, oh, it's not meant like that, it's just that clause has always been there - but they'll change it if you contest it and they really want you. So while I totally agree we shouldn't be agreeing to the sorts of clauses you mention, sometimes it's worth challenging the client because no one ever has to date, and their legal/procurement people are not 100% aware that what you're doing isn't anything like them paying for a TV ad. In my experience of this sort of thing, the fact that such clauses exist doesn't always mean the company is acting in bad faith. At times they're just juggernaut size companies with legal and procurement departments simply perpetuating the past, where internal change happens slowly... Ultimately it can be worth having the conversation. Without doing this I would barely have worked a day in my field in the past 25 years... And of course if you get in there first with your own T&Cs the onus is on them to accept these 😉 Stick to your principles, as you do, and all will be well 🙂

just stumbled on your channel and this video - i feel like we've just seen this with the DJI MIC 2 launch. The mics sound BAD , like there's a real problem with them and yet all but TWO reviewers mentioned that there is actually a BUG in the units that are shipping. ONLY TWO - out of hundreds of glowing "must have" reviews. What an embarrassment for so many big channels who said nothing. Not only are they hawking a bad product, but they now look like they know NOTHING about their own specialty - pointing to a deeper flaw in YT - that anyone can start a channel and call themselves an "expert" when they have no idea what they're talking about.

I’m so happy to be fortunate enough that these experiences for me are minimal, clauses like that sound ridiculous and predatory asl

I had to come back to your video to leave another comment. I just watched a pretty well know RU-vidr say that he was doing a sponsored review but that if you are interested in buying the product that you should watch an unsponsored review. I would think if someone is being completely honest that something like that would not be necessary. My guess is he is being honest about the positive but not telling the negative since it might be in a contract like the one that was presented to you.

Hello bro nice to see you, please what you think about Lumix gx8 is still good choice in 2024 for RU-vid videos? Thanks

As a work around, at the beginning of a video, could the creator includes big bold text saying “this is a commercial”? I’ve seen that little sponsored text on some videos, but this seems to go beyond that. I know that would probably mean a drop in views for that video, but would the payment from the product supplier/sponsor offset those lower views? I’m am completely ignorant on what sponsors allow or disallow creators to make transparent about the relationship between both parties (haha at least I’m a bit more informed after watching this video!), or what creators get paid for their “reviews”, but I think you are completely correct - if creators are asked to present themselves as “reviewers” but they’re actually performing the role of “employee” then that is beyond shady. Props

Theyre asking you to lie.