146
Holy shit Mr Based? (hexbear.net)
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] [email protected] 26 points 2 years ago

Mr Beast is more banal than that. He’s tapping in to the same economic model as game shows. Give away money/prizes with some spectacle attached, make content out of it, make more money selling the content than you spent on giveaways. Nothing really grifty about it, just boring. Anyone who thinks of him as a “philanthropist” is a gigantic rube, though.

[-] [email protected] 18 points 2 years ago

Nothing really grifty about it

Anyone who thinks of him as a “philanthropist”

There's the grift, in my opinion. His brand presents him doing this wacky stunts out "philanthropy" and even does cynical edits of tears of joy on kids' faces and the like for more clickbait.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago

For sure. We can debate the nuances of the word “grift”, but I don’t think there’s any doubt about what he’s doing or what his motives are.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

He does have his own "ghost kitchen" brands and peddles sugary junk to children, too. He even asks his fans to do free labor to "face" his brand products in stores.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/mrbeast-countersued-for-100m-over-contract-spat-with-ghost-kitchen-company/ar-AA1eVcFr

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/mrbeast-tweet-walmart-feastables-rcna73546

[-] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago

The ghost kitchen stuff is more nakedly exploitative than the content, imo. His videos are just reality tv, no better or worse (which, granted, isn’t saying much). Using the brand he built from making reality tv as leverage to extract profit from small restaurants is way worse.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago

My issue with him is that he exploits people in sensitive situations for video content. His "restoring eyesight to the blind" video was egregious.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

He's the zoomer equivalent of Oprah or Dr. Phil. He makes whatever will get the most attention, and invariably that means exploiting people to the maximum degree that won't hinder his ability to continue to exploit people. I'm not defending him, to be clear, I'm only trying to describe what he's doing. I don't like what he does, nor do I think it has any value to society.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

Lol, that's a really good comparison. My nephew loves Mr. Beast just as much as my Dad likes Dr. Phil. Agreed.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

A lot of people genuinely think he does the videos to support the charity, not the other way around. It's mind-blowing.

this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
146 points (100.0% liked)

chapotraphouse

13862 readers
783 users here now

Banned? DM Wmill to appeal.

No anti-nautilism posts. See: Eco-fascism Primer

Slop posts go in c/slop. Don't post low-hanging fruit here.

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS