10 ms·

I'm actually pretty impressed by how clever and insidious the "YouTuber" advertising game is. All these 'personalities' and 'stars' put out whatever content con

by mabbo 8y ago

I'm actually pretty impressed by how clever and insidious the "YouTuber" advertising game is. All these 'personalities' and 'stars' put out whatever content continues to get views- and there's a beautiful survival of the fittest game going on there- and then once they have subscribed viewers they can subtly promote anything at all and be paid for it. My wife watches a bunch of 'cleaning' and 'makeup/style' YouTubers. All I see when I view it are advertisements pretending to be personal videos. She loves it. The ones for kids are especially creepy when you really dig into what's going on. They've convinced people to subscribe to advertisements so they see them as soon as they're posted. That's even better than Facebook convincing everyone to give them all their personal information so it can be 'shared'.

eli 8y ago
I think fashion magazines have been mostly ads with style guides and tips mixed in for a long time -- and those aren't event free to read!
- kbenson 8y ago
  A fashion magazine is sort of like walking into a market or bazaar. Part of the reason for being there is to see all the interesting things people are trying to sell to you. It's slightly different than what's going on here, which might be more akin to the interesting conversation you struck up with the stranger on the bus getting awkward around for third or fourth time them mention how much they like their new jacket, which is both stylish and waterproof. That's not to say it's all one or the other. Fashion magazines have advertising masquerading as editorial content also, I'm sure, but I imagine most people are expecting their being pitched some product most the time while reading the magazine.
wil421 8y ago
I tend to agree with you. The other day I was looking for reviews on some boots I was going to buy. Most of the videos I found had the same fake advertisement feel you described. There was probably 4 or 5 videos basically giving a history of the company, why they are so good, and a small bit about the boot. It felt much more like an ad than a boot review. It took some searching to find an amateur YouTuber in the UK giving a review of the boots. He even had 6 months and a year update. It was a low quality production but the content was so much better. This guy even walked in a creek to show they were waterproof while everyone else sat in their bedroom talking.
- brianwawok 8y ago
  The joy is, the guys with sponsored videos likely got $100s ($1000s?) of dollars to do their shill review. The guy doing the good review maybe made 10 cents off the views of his video. Any time the financial incentives of a system encourage negative behavior, it is at least a hint that more regulation is needed. In other media forms, the guy giving the shill would need to say up front "I was paid for this review". On youtube and instagram, I don't think this is the case.
  - GhostVII 8y ago
    The people pushing the gambling site were offered around $100k for the sponsored video. Lots of money to be made when you have millions of subscribers.
  - wil421 8y ago
    I spoke with a guy at a leather shop in Florence. He said all he had to do was give a few leather jackets to instragam or social media models. They would share his name, keep the nice leather products, and he said he could get 100s of orders. The models didn’t even ask for payment. I can’t imagine what the Instagram models and YouTube superstars demand.
    - swarnie_ 8y ago
      Other Youtubers have reported being contacted for the Gambling website this thread is based on. Each one reported being offered between 10k and 20k to push this scam. It's speculated the biggest Youtubers pushing this are being paid up to 6 figures.
      - sebtoast 8y ago
        Keemstar said he was offered 100000$ but turned it down. Ricegum said in his followup video that he was offered more since he has more subscribers.
        8y ago
jasode 8y ago
>I view it are advertisements pretending to be personal videos. She loves it. Your wife has a normal response to ads when the topic is interesting to the viewer. That's the holy grail of "relevant ads": the boundaries of the "ad" get blurred and the message of the product being sold is better received. Women buy Vogue Magazine for the ads of fashion. It's not just a female thing. Some males bought Computer Shopper[1] specifically for the ads. Why would consumers pay for ads?!? Because they're relevant to their interests. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=Computer+Shopper+magazine&source=lnms&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=Computer+Shopper+magazine&so...
- benjaminjackman 8y ago
  I remember looking forward to the Sunday paper for the electronics store ads more than the paper itself (except maybe the sports section).
  - badwolf 8y ago
    I was always excited to see what amazing deals Fry's Electronics had
  - isostatic 8y ago
    Most people prefer the superbowl adverts to the actual game
    - toufiqbarhamov 8y ago
      Truly, I think that’s an indictment of the game, and to some extent the audience, not an endorsement of the advertisements.
      - hermitdev 8y ago
        I don't necessarily think it's and indictment of the game, but by the time it gets to the Super Bowl, 30/32 fans have had their team eliminated, so it's kind of become a fun tradition. For me, personally, it is probably the only NFL game I do not watch tape delayed to skip the boring ever repetitive commercials. Seriously, if you watch a game live, you're going to see the same handful of commercials probably at least a dozen times each over the 3 hours a typical game last. Gets annoying and repetitive.
vivan 8y ago
Reminds me of branded t-shirts - people will pay you to advertise your company on their own bodies.
- test1235 8y ago
  that's any clothing with a logo, not just tshirts
  - inawarminister 8y ago
    Only if they're in strategic places in the clothing. Compare Uniqlo minimalist logos vs Polo logo directly on their breast pockets.
imjk 8y ago
This is no different from any content based advertising - product placement in TV shows and movies, magazine articles, blogs, morning talk shows, and even traditional books have employed the same strategy. In fact I would say some of these other forms are more insidious. PR firms essentially do the same thing for news shows and publications too.
- elliekelly 8y ago
  I agree. I like the FTC's requirement that "influencers" have sponsorship disclosures on their YouTube videos and Instagram posts but it doesn't make sense that the same rules don't apply to other forms of product placement. Movies and TV shows don't have to disclose that they've been paid for the main character to drive a specific model car or wear a specific brand jacket.
SnowingXIV 8y ago
Noticed the same thing, my wife has a few personalities she follows on YouTube and looks forward to skincare product launches and other things being announced. Coincidentally, one of them pushed out their own mystery makeup box and it was a race to purchase one before they "sold out." I see this as just one big marketing ploy to make a bunch of money by selling cheaply made products at high prices because of an image and really pretty branding. I don't get it, but she enjoys it. As much as I hate to admit, I'm sure I've been sucked into some tech or office product in a similar fashion.
- dingaling 8y ago
  There is a kids' channel called Ryan's Toy Reviews that branched out into Christmas surprise gifts this year, at £50 and all sold out. We had to ban the channel at that point.
  - patorjk 8y ago
    I remember my son crying and telling me "but I miss it..." when I told him he couldn't watch that channel anymore. It's like a bunch of toy commercials, but I think kids also feel some connection to Ryan, which is what makes the channel work.
duxup 8y ago
I feel way disconnected as ... I can't belive people subscribe to this garbage. Who the hell wants to watch these obnoxious ads for this?
grawprog 8y ago
>All I see when I view it are advertisements pretending to be personal videos. I can't stand videos like that. Especially if you have to sit through 2-3 minutes of intro bullshit before finding out it's all an advertisement for some product. The ones I don't mind, that I've been seeing a lot more lately, are the ones that simply have an actual ad in them done by the video creator. They're usually pretty bad and sometimes you can tell they're not usually too happy about the product they're advertising but it still feels more honest to watch. You know it's an ad there's no pretending and i've seen a few videos where the creators actually put some effort in and did a pretty good job with the product placement part of their video.
cabaalis 8y ago
I watch tons of Youtube, and it's fairly obvious when someone is just pushing a product or when they're adding unique valuable content. If the content is good and engaging, I really don't care. I have disposable income, I do kind of want to know about products out there that can make my life easier/more interesting.
mikepurvis 8y ago
Further down the rabbit hole, there are questions being asked about how much of the creepy content for kids is even being produced by actual humans, or to what degree: https://medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-internet-c39c471271d2 https://medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-in...
jasonlotito 8y ago
Wait until I tell you about Hacker News, which contains many advertisements that people like and discuss all while claiming to be against this type of advertising.
- FiveSquared25 8y ago
  At least it’s free and explicit. It’s a place to show off startups my g.
dec0dedab0de 8y ago
I have been pointing out subtle commercials to my son since he was old enough to know the word. Also, not on youtube, but Bill Burr does some fantastic advertisements on the Monday Morning Podcast. I never want to skip them.
clairity 8y ago
i've been noodling on an idea about price transparency to lessen consumer information asymmetry, and this case might be a neat application: any ads should be accompanied by at least the highest all-inclusive price for the product in the expected viewership area. in this case, the mere inclusion of a price tips the viewer off that it's an ad. this price would include all fees and taxes to get the exact item shown in the ad. in cases where the fees and taxes vary for the viewership, you show the highest possible price. you can show other price variations, but the highest must be the most prominent. not only would consumers get better information but markets would be more competitive and ads would be better targeted (so as to show the lowest price to each viewer).
- johnwyles 8y ago
  say what now? are you basically just saying location aware pricing? that is nothing nuanced of course - look no further than any fundamental supply chain management firm - it is the crux of their business.
linsomniac 8y ago
I guess it depends on what your threshold for "advertisement" is... Is a video tour of the Grand Canyon a National Parks advertisement? Is someone fixing their broken-down car and advertisement for that car brand? Is a guy tearing down a drill an advertisement for that tool brand? What if he talks about all the shitty design in the tool? What about if most of his videos come down hard on the tools, and then one he declares "not teabag" (Canadian for "not too bad")? Is that an advertisement for that brand that didn't suck? Are political commentary videos advertisements for a party or politician or idea? Are cat videos an advertisement for cats? I guess it depends on what you are getting out of the video. I, personally, mostly watch youtube videos to be entertained or to learn things. Now, many of them will change my perception about brands or ideas, either positively or negatively. But, to me, they are serving a "higher purpose". Hell, I've even watched make-up videos like you describe (my daughter needed help with doing winged eyeliner), so I know what you're talking about. I'm not saying your point is invalid, it very much is. I have a pretty low threshold for traditional advertisements. But I think it's important to talk about the good and the bad, because there's a lot good on youtube that can get painted bad by ideas that all of this is advertisements. But the paid shills? Ugh! They have to be teaching or entertaining me a lot for me to be able to stomach them. I'm looking at you, Wranglerstar.
dragonwriter 8y ago
> They've convinced people to subscribe to advertisements so they see them as soon as they're posted. That's even better than Facebook convincing everyone to give them all their personal information so it can be 'shared'. Except Facebook also gets people to subscribe to advertisements so they (have a chance of) seeing them as soon as they are shared. But Facebook actually builds it's business model around that, unlike YouTube, and charges the advertisers more to reach more of the subscribers even after they've expressed interest, while YouTube treats videos as a venue for ads it sells, but doesn't treat the channel-subscriber relationship as an advertising channel to monetize the way Facebook does with Pages.
bliblah 8y ago
Sure but at least you see a tangible product being sold.In this case, all they are selling here are "prizes" from a slot machine with no odds or verifiability that the product even exists. The most outrageous example was a $250 million home in LA (had a description going along the lines of "The most valuable real estate in the city). It's obvious that no one is going to win this and it is just a picture placed there to trick people. It's amazing that you have people with over 1 million subs taking this money when there are so many red flags. Then again some of these are just young kids who only care about cash and are fine selling out their young impressionable audience. If you watch any of these videos it is so obviously rigged, they "win" a bunch of prizes off screen such as high end nike shoes and computers (on screen they get low tier prizes like random shoes or ear buds) and have it delivered in unmarked boxes immediately in the next scene. I expect some form of federal intervention in this case because it's absolutely insane from a simple cursory glance how brazen this is.
angarg12 8y ago
This [1] is the video which made me fed up and stopped watching Smarter Every Day. The only way that video made me smarter is realising how blatantly most social media offers low quality content crammed with advertisement. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ8JqQuKW_o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ8JqQuKW_o
jjtheblunt 8y ago
Dewayne Johnson's account is horrible in this way, despite being a super likable person: he's being essentially used by Under Armor to promote them, despite that company having shady ties to things like trophy hunting, which The Rock surely isn't aligned with. I find it curious how good folks get coopted by crappy corps.
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  "trophy hunting, which The Rock surely isn't aligned with" I'll bet $1000 that the real Dwayne Johnson doesn't care that much, as most people don't care or think about it that much. 'The Rock' and everything you've ever seen about him is a performance.
t_akosuke 8y ago
meanwhile lots of smaller channels that do interesting content and support themselves with sponsoring deals but being upfront about it are getting their margins squeezed and a lot of their stuff taken down with no recourse by automated copyright claims...
asdffdsa 8y ago
Same thing's been happening to me; I watch videos from a successful person in a hobby I like. The content's good because he genuinely enjoys the area. However, recently there's been videos about gear and nutrition, and the product name and praise is a LITTLE too obvious for comfort. Though my initial reaction was 'wow those seem like great products, I should check them out'. There's a camaraderie and intimacy that's gathered when you watch someone's videos, and I feel like it's little different from product marketing of celebs though a little more subverted since it's newer and less regulated.
wdr1 8y ago
What you've described sounds like my son & I when we get our Lego catalog. It's not just digital.

by mabbo 8y ago

eli 8y ago

I think fashion magazines have been mostly ads with style guides and tips mixed in for a long time -- and those aren't event free to read!

kbenson 8y ago
A fashion magazine is sort of like walking into a market or bazaar. Part of the reason for being there is to see all the interesting things people are trying to sell to you. It's slightly different than what's going on here, which might be more akin to the interesting conversation you struck up with the stranger on the bus getting awkward around for third or fourth time them mention how much they like their new jacket, which is both stylish and waterproof. That's not to say it's all one or the other. Fashion magazines have advertising masquerading as editorial content also, I'm sure, but I imagine most people are expecting their being pitched some product most the time while reading the magazine.

wil421 8y ago

I tend to agree with you. The other day I was looking for reviews on some boots I was going to buy. Most of the videos I found had the same fake advertisement feel you described. There was probably 4 or 5 videos basically giving a history of the company, why they are so good, and a small bit about the boot. It felt much more like an ad than a boot review. It took some searching to find an amateur YouTuber in the UK giving a review of the boots. He even had 6 months and a year update. It was a low quality production but the content was so much better. This guy even walked in a creek to show they were waterproof while everyone else sat in their bedroom talking.

brianwawok 8y ago
The joy is, the guys with sponsored videos likely got $100s ($1000s?) of dollars to do their shill review. The guy doing the good review maybe made 10 cents off the views of his video. Any time the financial incentives of a system encourage negative behavior, it is at least a hint that more regulation is needed. In other media forms, the guy giving the shill would need to say up front "I was paid for this review". On youtube and instagram, I don't think this is the case.
- GhostVII 8y ago
  The people pushing the gambling site were offered around $100k for the sponsored video. Lots of money to be made when you have millions of subscribers.
- wil421 8y ago
  I spoke with a guy at a leather shop in Florence. He said all he had to do was give a few leather jackets to instragam or social media models. They would share his name, keep the nice leather products, and he said he could get 100s of orders. The models didn’t even ask for payment. I can’t imagine what the Instagram models and YouTube superstars demand.
  - swarnie_ 8y ago
    Other Youtubers have reported being contacted for the Gambling website this thread is based on. Each one reported being offered between 10k and 20k to push this scam. It's speculated the biggest Youtubers pushing this are being paid up to 6 figures.
    - sebtoast 8y ago
      Keemstar said he was offered 100000$ but turned it down. Ricegum said in his followup video that he was offered more since he has more subscribers.
      - 8y ago

jasode 8y ago

>I view it are advertisements pretending to be personal videos. She loves it. Your wife has a normal response to ads when the topic is interesting to the viewer. That's the holy grail of "relevant ads": the boundaries of the "ad" get blurred and the message of the product being sold is better received. Women buy Vogue Magazine for the ads of fashion. It's not just a female thing. Some males bought Computer Shopper[1] specifically for the ads. Why would consumers pay for ads?!? Because they're relevant to their interests. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=Computer+Shopper+magazine&source=lnms&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=Computer+Shopper+magazine&so...

benjaminjackman 8y ago
I remember looking forward to the Sunday paper for the electronics store ads more than the paper itself (except maybe the sports section).
- badwolf 8y ago
  I was always excited to see what amazing deals Fry's Electronics had
- isostatic 8y ago
  Most people prefer the superbowl adverts to the actual game
  - toufiqbarhamov 8y ago
    Truly, I think that’s an indictment of the game, and to some extent the audience, not an endorsement of the advertisements.
    - hermitdev 8y ago
      I don't necessarily think it's and indictment of the game, but by the time it gets to the Super Bowl, 30/32 fans have had their team eliminated, so it's kind of become a fun tradition. For me, personally, it is probably the only NFL game I do not watch tape delayed to skip the boring ever repetitive commercials. Seriously, if you watch a game live, you're going to see the same handful of commercials probably at least a dozen times each over the 3 hours a typical game last. Gets annoying and repetitive.

vivan 8y ago

Reminds me of branded t-shirts - people will pay you to advertise your company on their own bodies.

test1235 8y ago
that's any clothing with a logo, not just tshirts
- inawarminister 8y ago
  Only if they're in strategic places in the clothing. Compare Uniqlo minimalist logos vs Polo logo directly on their breast pockets.

imjk 8y ago

This is no different from any content based advertising - product placement in TV shows and movies, magazine articles, blogs, morning talk shows, and even traditional books have employed the same strategy. In fact I would say some of these other forms are more insidious. PR firms essentially do the same thing for news shows and publications too.

elliekelly 8y ago
I agree. I like the FTC's requirement that "influencers" have sponsorship disclosures on their YouTube videos and Instagram posts but it doesn't make sense that the same rules don't apply to other forms of product placement. Movies and TV shows don't have to disclose that they've been paid for the main character to drive a specific model car or wear a specific brand jacket.

SnowingXIV 8y ago

Noticed the same thing, my wife has a few personalities she follows on YouTube and looks forward to skincare product launches and other things being announced. Coincidentally, one of them pushed out their own mystery makeup box and it was a race to purchase one before they "sold out." I see this as just one big marketing ploy to make a bunch of money by selling cheaply made products at high prices because of an image and really pretty branding. I don't get it, but she enjoys it. As much as I hate to admit, I'm sure I've been sucked into some tech or office product in a similar fashion.

dingaling 8y ago
There is a kids' channel called Ryan's Toy Reviews that branched out into Christmas surprise gifts this year, at £50 and all sold out. We had to ban the channel at that point.
- patorjk 8y ago
  I remember my son crying and telling me "but I miss it..." when I told him he couldn't watch that channel anymore. It's like a bunch of toy commercials, but I think kids also feel some connection to Ryan, which is what makes the channel work.

duxup 8y ago

I feel way disconnected as ... I can't belive people subscribe to this garbage. Who the hell wants to watch these obnoxious ads for this?

grawprog 8y ago

>All I see when I view it are advertisements pretending to be personal videos. I can't stand videos like that. Especially if you have to sit through 2-3 minutes of intro bullshit before finding out it's all an advertisement for some product. The ones I don't mind, that I've been seeing a lot more lately, are the ones that simply have an actual ad in them done by the video creator. They're usually pretty bad and sometimes you can tell they're not usually too happy about the product they're advertising but it still feels more honest to watch. You know it's an ad there's no pretending and i've seen a few videos where the creators actually put some effort in and did a pretty good job with the product placement part of their video.

cabaalis 8y ago

I watch tons of Youtube, and it's fairly obvious when someone is just pushing a product or when they're adding unique valuable content. If the content is good and engaging, I really don't care. I have disposable income, I do kind of want to know about products out there that can make my life easier/more interesting.

mikepurvis 8y ago

Further down the rabbit hole, there are questions being asked about how much of the creepy content for kids is even being produced by actual humans, or to what degree: https://medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-internet-c39c471271d2 https://medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-in...

jasonlotito 8y ago

Wait until I tell you about Hacker News, which contains many advertisements that people like and discuss all while claiming to be against this type of advertising.

FiveSquared25 8y ago
At least it’s free and explicit. It’s a place to show off startups my g.

dec0dedab0de 8y ago

I have been pointing out subtle commercials to my son since he was old enough to know the word. Also, not on youtube, but Bill Burr does some fantastic advertisements on the Monday Morning Podcast. I never want to skip them.

clairity 8y ago

i've been noodling on an idea about price transparency to lessen consumer information asymmetry, and this case might be a neat application: any ads should be accompanied by at least the highest all-inclusive price for the product in the expected viewership area. in this case, the mere inclusion of a price tips the viewer off that it's an ad. this price would include all fees and taxes to get the exact item shown in the ad. in cases where the fees and taxes vary for the viewership, you show the highest possible price. you can show other price variations, but the highest must be the most prominent. not only would consumers get better information but markets would be more competitive and ads would be better targeted (so as to show the lowest price to each viewer).

johnwyles 8y ago
say what now? are you basically just saying location aware pricing? that is nothing nuanced of course - look no further than any fundamental supply chain management firm - it is the crux of their business.

linsomniac 8y ago

I guess it depends on what your threshold for "advertisement" is... Is a video tour of the Grand Canyon a National Parks advertisement? Is someone fixing their broken-down car and advertisement for that car brand? Is a guy tearing down a drill an advertisement for that tool brand? What if he talks about all the shitty design in the tool? What about if most of his videos come down hard on the tools, and then one he declares "not teabag" (Canadian for "not too bad")? Is that an advertisement for that brand that didn't suck? Are political commentary videos advertisements for a party or politician or idea? Are cat videos an advertisement for cats? I guess it depends on what you are getting out of the video. I, personally, mostly watch youtube videos to be entertained or to learn things. Now, many of them will change my perception about brands or ideas, either positively or negatively. But, to me, they are serving a "higher purpose". Hell, I've even watched make-up videos like you describe (my daughter needed help with doing winged eyeliner), so I know what you're talking about. I'm not saying your point is invalid, it very much is. I have a pretty low threshold for traditional advertisements. But I think it's important to talk about the good and the bad, because there's a lot good on youtube that can get painted bad by ideas that all of this is advertisements. But the paid shills? Ugh! They have to be teaching or entertaining me a lot for me to be able to stomach them. I'm looking at you, Wranglerstar.

dragonwriter 8y ago

> They've convinced people to subscribe to advertisements so they see them as soon as they're posted. That's even better than Facebook convincing everyone to give them all their personal information so it can be 'shared'. Except Facebook also gets people to subscribe to advertisements so they (have a chance of) seeing them as soon as they are shared. But Facebook actually builds it's business model around that, unlike YouTube, and charges the advertisers more to reach more of the subscribers even after they've expressed interest, while YouTube treats videos as a venue for ads it sells, but doesn't treat the channel-subscriber relationship as an advertising channel to monetize the way Facebook does with Pages.

bliblah 8y ago

Sure but at least you see a tangible product being sold.In this case, all they are selling here are "prizes" from a slot machine with no odds or verifiability that the product even exists. The most outrageous example was a $250 million home in LA (had a description going along the lines of "The most valuable real estate in the city). It's obvious that no one is going to win this and it is just a picture placed there to trick people. It's amazing that you have people with over 1 million subs taking this money when there are so many red flags. Then again some of these are just young kids who only care about cash and are fine selling out their young impressionable audience. If you watch any of these videos it is so obviously rigged, they "win" a bunch of prizes off screen such as high end nike shoes and computers (on screen they get low tier prizes like random shoes or ear buds) and have it delivered in unmarked boxes immediately in the next scene. I expect some form of federal intervention in this case because it's absolutely insane from a simple cursory glance how brazen this is.

angarg12 8y ago

This [1] is the video which made me fed up and stopped watching Smarter Every Day. The only way that video made me smarter is realising how blatantly most social media offers low quality content crammed with advertisement. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ8JqQuKW_o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ8JqQuKW_o

jjtheblunt 8y ago

Dewayne Johnson's account is horrible in this way, despite being a super likable person: he's being essentially used by Under Armor to promote them, despite that company having shady ties to things like trophy hunting, which The Rock surely isn't aligned with. I find it curious how good folks get coopted by crappy corps.

sonnyblarney 8y ago
"trophy hunting, which The Rock surely isn't aligned with" I'll bet $1000 that the real Dwayne Johnson doesn't care that much, as most people don't care or think about it that much. 'The Rock' and everything you've ever seen about him is a performance.

t_akosuke 8y ago

meanwhile lots of smaller channels that do interesting content and support themselves with sponsoring deals but being upfront about it are getting their margins squeezed and a lot of their stuff taken down with no recourse by automated copyright claims...

asdffdsa 8y ago

Same thing's been happening to me; I watch videos from a successful person in a hobby I like. The content's good because he genuinely enjoys the area. However, recently there's been videos about gear and nutrition, and the product name and praise is a LITTLE too obvious for comfort. Though my initial reaction was 'wow those seem like great products, I should check them out'. There's a camaraderie and intimacy that's gathered when you watch someone's videos, and I feel like it's little different from product marketing of celebs though a little more subverted since it's newer and less regulated.

wdr1 8y ago

What you've described sounds like my son & I when we get our Lego catalog. It's not just digital.