This week I'm digging into the story of Mr. Beast, a 26 year-old internet celebrity who's nearly universally known by young people but generally ignored by people over 30. The mega-influencer has more subscribers than anyone else on YouTube, and he presides over a multi-million dollar empire. But things are have not been looking good for Beast lately.
Jimmie "Mr. Beast" Donaldson is the undisputed king of YouTube. His channel began 12 years ago with Minecraft videos, and has since grown to over 318 million subscribers who "tune in" mainly for his endurance stunt videos where Beast gives away large cash prizes to people who spend 100 days in a nuclear bunker, sit in a bathtub full of snakes, or steal a giant diamond.
Until fairly recently, Mr. Beast has maintained a largely positive image. His videos are annoying, but seem harmless. He even runs various charities. But the worm is turning for Mr. Beast in a big way, and controversy seems to be dogging his every step lately. Here are the major controversies swirling around Mr. Beast over the last month or so:
Two weeks ago, Mr. Beast and fellow mega-influencers Logan Paul and Olajide “KSI” Olatunji announced a new product: Lunchly. Meant as a competitor to Lunchables, Lunchly is pre-packaged meal kits aimed at the children who make up much of Mr. Beast's audience. Each one contains a Feastable (Mr. Beast's candy bar) and a Prime drink (Paul and KSI's beverage.)
This TikTok video in which the trio compares Lunchly to Lunchables illustrates the product's launch strategy. The meals seem very close to Lunchables, but Beast and Company focus is on which is "healthier." The claims they make in the video are technically true, but debating whether one ultra-processed food-like product is "healthier" than another is splitting hairs.
Then there's the "electrolytes." Toward the end of the video, Logan Paul touts that Lunchly has "400 milligrams of electrolytes!" but he leaves off that most of those electrolytes are from sodium. A Lunchly kit contains over 20% of the recommended daily salt intake in one meal. But it's not even really one meal. The calories vary by flavor, but the turkey Lunchly contains 360 calories, where the U.S. guidelines for school lunches recommend between 550 and 650 calories for kids up to 8th grade. So more salt, fewer calories. Whether it's better to have more empty calories or less is debatable, but either way, a Lunchly is not a "healthy" choice for a kid's lunch by any reasonable definition of the word. Here's YouTube's medical authority, Dr. Mike, with a more in-depth look:
On the "vibes" side of the controversy, there's something troubling about YouTube influencers marketing meals directly to children. Big corporations have advertised at children for generations, but influencers monetizing the parasocial relationship they've created feels more personal, more sinister. This isn't a T-shirt or a tchotchke meant to say "I'm a fan!" It's food. Kids put this in their bodies. As influencer DanTDM tweeted:
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DanTDM has 29 million followers, and is known as one of the most friendly and level-headed people online. DanTDM is beloved by young people, and generally doesn't engage in controversy, so when he does, people notice. And that brings us to the next level of the Mr. Beast's controversy: The company he keeps.
DanTDM's tweet led to an immediate response from fellow Lunchly maven KSI, who clapped back on Twitter/X and YouTube. KSI didn't respond to the specifics, but he didn't let up, even though DanTDM didn't respond, and the YouTube community pretty much universally sided against KSI. As one commenter to KSI's video put it: "You know you’re cooked when none of the top comments are from your fans that support you."
Many think KSI's vitriol toward DanTDM is more than just hurt feelings. Whatever else is true of KSI, he knows how to generate attention, and many feel that he was trying to draw eyeballs to his new project, this week's viral video for a song called "Thick of It," especially since he posted a tweet claiming to link to an "apology" that actually links to the video for the song.
It worked, too. The video has been viewed close to five million times in its first three days online, but not because everyone thinks it's amazing. The comment section is page after page of YouTubers roasting the song. Some samples:
This sounds like a middle school gym song when the teachers want you to be hype for the workout.
PLEASE unrelease this 😭🙏
The best part about this song were the ads
Pretty confident he got ChatGPT to write him a "Cool rap song"
Honestly impressive how bro manage to make his entire community turn against him in a week
Mr. Beast's other Lunchly co-conspirator, Logan Paul, is maybe more questionable a character than KSI. Here's only some of the disreputable things he's done:
Uploaded a video where he made jokes about a suicide victim whose body his crew discovered in Japan.
Heavily promoted an NFT-based game that many allege was simply a crypto-scam.
Released an "energy drink" that contains 200mg of caffeine in one can. That's about half a dozen Coke cans or nearly two Red Bulls. (The Prime flavor included in Lunchly is caffeine free.)
Allegedly mistreated a model on a video shoot, tasered dead rats, and made comments many thought were anti-gay. I could on here, but you get the idea.
Much of the above could be dismissed as internet drama, but there's a more serious, real-world controversy swirling around Mr. Beast. At issue is his upcoming competition show Beast Games, where he's taking the contests and stunts from YouTube to Amazon Prime.
The show features over 1,000 contestants vying for $5 million, but five of those contestants have filed a class action lawsuit against Mr. Beast's production company and Amazon, alleging "chronic mistreatment" and sexual harassment of contestants. The suit alleges contestants couldn't access to medical care, food and water, and that participants in the show should be considered employees, based on California labor law.
Whether the accusations are true or not remains to be decided, but either way, the lawsuit highlights the difficulty of taking things from YouTube to the real world. It's harder to play loose with health, safety, and employment law when you're on a larger stage.
According to a report from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, children between 8-12 in the United States spend 4-6 hours a day watching or using screens, and teens spend up to 9 hours per day. Staring at glowing rectangles isn't new, but the kinds of para-relationships that viewers of influencers like Mr. Beast and friends is new, and we don't know what, if any, effect this will have on an entire generation. Maybe this unregulated and uncontrollable experiment in mass media won't prove any more destructive than the hours you and I spent plopped in front of the TV after school, but either way, the Lunchly controversy has me asking whether it's a good idea to let people like this feed an entire generation's bodies and brains.
