YouTube Sponsor Scams 

I have amendments to make after reading some comments: 1. Caffeine is not objectively good or bad, if you use it in moderation and are a responsible adult, it should be fine, but gfuel and gamersupps are advertising to young people and people who do not need the extra energy. I was a bit harsh on it in the video so I apologize if it seems like I was being fear monger-y. You won’t die instantly if you drink it or anything just be aware that it messes with your body, as it is a stimulant. 2. Don’t use honey, it’s hilariously ironic but someone in the comments told me that they weren’t great and I looked into it and they’ve gotten pretty bad lately 3. Music Used: 8AM - Animal Crossing New Leaf 1PM - Animal Crossing New Leaf Dead Bird Studio - A Hat in Time Bamboo Island - The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword Little Planet - Sonic CD Beneath The Mask Rain (instrumental) - Persona 5 Hideout 1st - Persona 5 Tactica Boarder 70 ( Something Jazzy For Your Mind) - Ollie King

Moral of the story Dear fuck people please stop taking BetterHelp ads

Anything branded for men, or for women is usually going to be an overpriced version of a product that already exists

I do wonder who’s actually buying this stuff, as everyone I know filters out the sponsorships. I personally have gotten so keen on skipping them that I’ve started accidentally skipping parts of normal videos because their wording got weird

Betterhelp is the single most evil one, no debates. Messing with depression, suicide, and mental health, is just something you do not do. Taking advantage, and disregarding people suffering from those groups is actual evil. And it pains me to see creators turning a blind eye to thay, specially ones that like to keep a "good genuine guy" image. Jacksfilms did that, TWICE, one time being after the whole thing surfaced, which puts his character into seriously questionable place, and recently, a case that I know of, there is now Maven Huffman, a former wrestler that has been growing a lot lately as a youtuber, and claims to take honesty and transparency very seriously.

I love that Schlatt basically said: nah, Manscaped was shit, and so were their ad reads. The realest person when it comes to ads and shitty scams lol.

I feel a pain inside every time I see a beloved youtuber advertise air up

I shed a tear everytime I see a better help sponsor on a video from a RU-vidr I’m a fan of

Jacksfilms got on my shit list because he apologized a while back for taking Betterhelp sponsorships, but then started taking them again.

Artificial sweeteners: not bad in correct amount. Putting a packet or two in your drink 1-2 time a day? Not bad. Eating an entire container of Splenda in a day? Bad. I work in dental and have to fight the misconceptions around aritfical sweeteners all day every day. The difference between medicine and poison is the dosage.

Oh the irony of a BETTERHELP RU-vid ad coming on literally right after you talked about it ☠️

What did we learn? - Never buy anything advertised by any influenser if the product doesnt have unbiased info about being actually good.

Shout-out to the couple of months when Manscaped plastered their ads all over Tumblr, the website with perhaps the least overlap between "people with balls" and "people who identify as men"

I still can't believe Cinema Therapy, WITH A LICENSED THERAPIST AS ONE OF THE MAIN COSTARS, takes Better Help sponsors

Being poor is great, I can't afford anything advertised

A golden rule I use on RU-vid is to never ever buy any product a youtuber is sponsored by.

I think something that a lot creator should do more often. Is actually buy the product first, before agreeing to sponsors it. I think a lot of creator are disconnected with actually experience with purchasing the product, that there fan base will have to do.

This video was sponsored by sponsorblock for chrome

Manscape and füm are particularly evil to me. Manscape targets people’s insecurities, a lot of their ads harp on them even, then charge obscene amounts for their products. Füm specifically targets people with addictions, who may be vulnerable to jumping on any product that claims to help them recover. It’s just despicable to target those who are already vulnerable, knowing they’re more likely to dump tons of money on a product that they see every creator they look up to push so heavily.

To all youtubers wanting to be sponsored by companies. Don't advertise something that you won't use yourself.

I was using betterhelp until the "therapist" told me that i should stop breathing entirely

Instead of saying caffeine shouldn’t be taken after 5 pm it’s more accurate to say not to take it 4 hours before you sleep. Because people live on different schedules.

I'm at a point where if a youtuber sponsors a product, I blacklist it

Personal favorite of mine is the suspiciously identical and formal wording when people give those "I don't advertise products I don't personally use"/"I wasn't told what to say by the company" disclaimers. Blink twice if you need help, buddy, because that shit looks like a video sent in by kidnappers. "I am treated very well here, I love being kidnapped, trust me"

As a pretty casual smoker, FUM has baffled me pretty hard, people saying it’s “good” & “safe” blows my mind…

I have a really great rule of thumb for detecting youtube sponsorship scams, it's never failed me: if it's a youtube sponsorship, it's a scam

Anyone else here old enough to remember when sponsorships on RU-vid started and creators would have to explain to viewers what they mean't? LOL

As for someone with ADHD the idea of a water bottle that I have to recharge with new capsules all the time and that it leaks means I would die of dehydration. Drinking water that way requires too much of executive function.

i've always had an issue with Air Up because the tactic of smelling something "good" while youre consuming something you dont wanna consume is heavily associated with disordered eating. a lot of people with eating disorders have heard something like "your tastebuds rely on smell for taste, so smell cake and eat broccoli to stay skinny and still feel like you're eating cake". i know its water so its different, but i feel like blurring those lines is so wrong for people who already have eating disorders.

I am sick of this professional era of RU-vid, constant shit ads, terrible sponsorships and shilling. RU-vid was much better when it was mainly just random people making funny videos and enthusiasts doing videos for fun or as a way to share knowledge.

sorry if it seems like im doggin on caffeine too much, i just meant that it probably shouldn't be advertised how it has been to audiences that are typically under 18

I saw someone sponsored by an online casino. I was so surprised. Also avoid scentbird as the ceo is awful

As a general rule of thumb, I stay away from any product or service that's being shilled on YT, Tiktok or FB. Served me well so far.

Thank you for pointing out the big sponsors. Most other videos talk about sponsors literally NOONE has ever heard from

This is why even I, as a small creator, take the time to individually research EVERY sponsorship offer I receive. Any time I get a sponsorship email I do research on the company and the people who run it. I read the sponsorship contract eagerly and I even have my own contract stating what I can and cannot say or promote. My audience is mostly young teens, and as such it’s important for me to keep my brand identity appropriate for that age so I have regularly turned down offers from “adult-centric” companies as those products are not appropriate to show my audience. I also only accept money and have refused offers that just send me products. The only time I would accept a product offer is if it’s something I would use, which hasn’t happened yet. Setting a standard for yourself early on as a creator will give you lots of integrity early on and not only build trust with your audience, but also prevent unnecessary drama and scandals in the future. No matter how small your channel is, you have an impact. And it’s your utmost responsibility to make sure you’re doing the right thing always.

Remember kids, when you do drugs, you go to hell before you die -Actual Mario for Real

Its so weird seeing those manscaped adds trying to make men feel bad about their body hair. Like cmon guys. Women are fighting back against the damage that did to us for years. Dont do men in like that

"Gamer supplements, or Gupplements, if you will" No. No I don't think I will.

Manscape's biggest adversaries are boxes of tiny razors with little plastic handles that last for 2 or 3 months and cost 10 bucks, and that's honestly just impressive.

I didn’t actually think people are believing RU-vid sponsorships. I never cared that much because I assumed everyone already knew it was a scam. Like, get that money dude, people should be looking for other opinions on the products anyways.

i'm so surprised you didnt mention hello fresh. they're one of the biggest brands that sponsor youtubers but have TERRIBLE company practices. they pay their employees so little that they need to have more than one job to live, have unsafe working environments, and rush their employees through breaks so they can force them to keep working.

I have literally never saved more than a penny with Honey why does everyone else get discounts lmao

It's legitimately weird that influencers have not developed any sponsorships that are not laughable garbage. I feel like Taco Bell should be all over the place online, by now a bunch of proper players should all be in on this action, but no. It's just this weird junk that belongs right in the trash.

Jokes on you, I love tar

I would never and will never buy a RU-vidr sponsored product.

If I know one thing, it’s this: if a RU-vidr is peddling it, it’s a garbage product.

I got scammed by AirUp and it was sadly from Game Theory. MatPat talked about the product so often and repeated that he wasn’t sponsored, he just actually loved the product, so I trusted him. I really hope he actually likes the product and wasn’t lying

As someone who has already been addicted to caffeine through Red Bull and Monster, Gamersupps has actually been a great alternative for me, it's cheaper than canned drinks in the long run, and I end up drinking less of it overall since the comedown is no where near as bad. I also feel better drinking it since it's mostly water, it's still not healthy by any means, but has to be a lot better than drinks like monster that make your piss look radioactive.

Wait, so I won’t become a Scottish lord or a lady for buying one patch of grass? Pfff yeah, okay…

If this dude’s only issue with G-fuel is the time of day when it could be drunk, I’d say it’s probably not a bad product to replace my morning or midday coffee

The Manscaped sponsorship is the worst. To watch your favorite youtuber break character and casually start talking about balls, is quite jarring.

As a woman blessed with lips big enough to be mistaken for malformed testes- USE A REMINGTON BIKINI TRIMMER IF YOU USE ANYTHING. Shit barely cuts me ever, only really does if I'm too stupid about it lol. Bht deffo just try trimming by hand if possible or use a razor with a guard on it :)

My personal grudge with manscape is that made youtubers stop in the middle of video to talk about shaving their balls, and like, am i the weird one ? am i the oversensitive snowflake from conservative rural Poland for not wanting for youtuber i'm watching to stop talking about topic and start talking how he shaves his balls and i should too besides the fact my entertainment just got interrupted but also because hearing how said youtuber shaves his balls is just kinda uncomfortable ?

I don't even smoke, and I almost got FUM. I need a fidget tool, and I do bite my nails, so the way they advertised it really called to me. I'm so glad I had some sense to not get it, but I'm so surprised how well thought-out your criticism of it is, that you also considered that. Yes it targets a whole demographic of people like me.

I got FUM as a gift from my partner after quitting vape. Orange flavour was like cleaning agent. Menthol was amazing but one day i woke up with the worst migrate in my entire life, so bad i couldn't move my body. FÜM's down 👎

Remember the established titles scam?

My idea is for Gamer Water. It's regular water but with pictures of video game characters (or knockoffs thereof) on the bottle and sells for twice the price.

you can't shave your balls with manscaped? that's their whole line, what's the point of then

That was a good point about fun I haven't heard anyone else bring up yet. I recently became allergic to tea tree oil after using a soap infused with it. Imagine if the same had happened in my lungs.

When it come to air up, it always baffles me how people just forgot about putting fruit in their water and letting it sit for a bit to change the taste. I’ve done this with oranges, apples, and freeze dried mangos for years and there’s legit no need for something like air up or even mio for that matter.

'ive considered using caffeine' had me rolling

I already see the drop in Viewer Retention / Watchtime with that "I am not talking about balls anymore" segway

0:30 you can blame some of them... an example is charlie moist critical, i love the guy but he recently took a brand deal advertising payday loans, despite definitely having better things offered to him (probably for a lower paycheck), and despite EASILY being a MULTI milionaire (im assuming based on the fact he has tons of twitch subs, streams often, averages 1m+ views a video, uploads twice a day, takes sponsorships, has a giant fucking gfuel vending machine in his backround, sells tons of merch, has multiple youtube channels, owns an entire fucking esports company, ect)

when you shave your balls you got to hold them in your hand like a desk top stress ball to take up the slack so you can get a smooth even shave, and that goes for electric and safety razors.

I swear I already have PTSD from people making word plays and including ads in videos. as soon as the wording starts to sound like the start of "this video is sponsored by" It sucks, and everything is baked into the videos which sucks even more

I call out anyone that is sponsored by better health. Id even one person sees my comment and decides not to use them I'll be happy. Ill skip half of a video before i listen to an ad just because its almost always one of these.

anyone who takes a fum sponsorship is instantly evil lol it's clearly a vape

The real scam is RU-vid putting a total of 6 20 second ads on this video.

Had a person tell me that "gfuel isnt an energy drink" and that me drinking a monster was something completely different. Its quite literally the same thing

What really bothers me is channels who are praising themselves on intensive research about the topics they talk about, but then advertise for a cash grabbing sponsor?

Manscaped nicked me so bad. That thing is so cheaply made. I hated it and literally threw it away.

yesterday thegamerfrommars posted a video with a sponsorship from an online casino, currently waiting for the hour long takedown videos. (gambling is bad, promoting gambling is bad)

I once checked the contents of the Manscaped Boxes online and wondered "so what is the difference between this and a 40 Euro-Trimmer?" O__o Thanks for confirming my doubts.

Manscape and Sheath both piss me off because they prey on the insecurities of men. It's evil.

Thank you for mentioning opera. I remember researching the company before opera gx existed, and I found that the company was well known to be very sketchy then. After opera gx came out, everybody had forgotten about this, probably because their target demographic didn’t even know in the first place.

Great video. Really happy to see people cover this. I worked in the ad industry between '16 and '22 so saw the change and difference towards youtube as a platform from that side of the window evolve. It's such a cesspool for ads now.

Bro said "Caffeine! Not even once."

Man what happened to us here in Germany. We used to be peak engineers and now all we can come up with is a shitty water bottle with an air freshener attached to it. Also Füm needs to drop the ü umlaut. My culture is not your branding! Good video bud, I'm down with ya

when are people going to talk about ground news? like they make some really bold, unfounded claims about what is basically a bog standard news aggregator app with some silly ranking feature. the app and the way it supposedly 'fights media bias' is so silly it sounds like a 15 yo in model un came up with it. worse of all i think it actually could harm or diminish people's media literacy and understanding of bias. and of course it cost a monthly subscription even though it offers nothing you couldn't get for free

If it advertises on youtube, it's a scam.

Manscaped ads have begun pretending they're sponsorships when they're regular ads. That really gets under my skin

I think I've discovered a new law of nature: if X pays for youtube sponsorships X is garbage, usually overpriced garbage.

Anything that a RU-vidrs advertises I assume is a scam in some way.

I don't think people understand that excessive caffeine consumption can give you really bad anxiety.

There’s definitely a few people who watched this video and realized they got scammed

Man went through the entire video about sponsors and did not mention raid shadow legends, chad move 😎👍🏻

Just a heads up, I tend to avoid brands that are being advertised to me. Call it an advanced form of Oppositional Defiance Disorder.

Boy howdy, the community post directly under this video was a youtuber advertising gamer supps lmao

Raycon is the one sponsor I actually liked, but I’m kind of afraid to try their updated products because I heard their new normal buds are a downgrade. I’ve just learned to be skeptical of any product I see with huge advertising campaigns because it’s a red flag 🚩

Glad someone is talking about this. The products and services being promoted on these channels is just so alarming! They aren’t useful products at best and at worst are just scams that steal your money

My rule of thumb is: If this product has to be advertised by a Minecraft RU-vidr with 3k subs, instead of through traditional avenues, you can assume those traditional avenues found a reason to be wary.

Let’s talk about what? 0:52

I use air up because I have autism and I will start gagging on water because it has “no taste”. I usually try to use each pod for 2 weeks and would say it doesn’t not work but it’s definitely overblown in their ads. It is definitely a thing I would probably say don’t get it if you don’t think you need it type of thing, however I feel as pointed out it’s less predatory than the others you talked about afterwards.

I think many of us has forgotten the famous line: "If it's too good to be true. It usally is" And: "Don't trust someone just because they have a big name." Do your own research, look with your two eyes, and see with your third. In summary. This was a really good video, and I liked how you went into detail with these said 'products'. And better help is not a product, it's just a way for people to make money out of your suffering And for Füm? That's just people who watched the lorax and took extensive notes on how to LITERALLY SELL AIR.

I got a scam ad while watching this video. This video is right.

3:32 so basically what everyone says to women

honestly shit like this makes me so happy to have sponsorblock extensions (it's on youtube vanced for mobile users though it needs to be downloaded from the site so sorry apple users) cause jesus christ the lack of quality control is shocking, especially therapy channels with better help. actually unsubscribed from cinema therapy doubling down after their comments got flooded. think the worst sponsors exist within specific internet spheres like the in game item gambling sites. like screw the shadyness of their actual operations every content creator knows children and teens both lie about their age to make online accounts and are also the ones with enough freetime and unawareness about adblocking to give them the vast majority of their youtube revanue. like it's irresponsible to assume your audience think like you do cause ultimately, they don't, it's why you make the videos and you make them. and they know you have insider knowledge so they assume you've used that knowledge responsibly cause most people aren't cynical until they become jaded. and i think we can all agree a jaded society is just misery to live in. and the quickest way to become jaded is to be wronged in a way that blind sides you, and blind siding you is exactly what these products try to do cause what self respecting company sells you fucking leaky water bottles or essential oil vapes?

9:31 this one kills me, how does anyon RU-vidr not know about this.

YT Sponsorships ARE the new infomercials

The only time i got scammed by a youtube sponsorship ad was with Raycon. Absolute garbage headphones with some of the worst dynamic range I've ever had the displeasure of hearing.