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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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My issue with him is that he exploits people in sensitive situations for video content. His "restoring eyesight to the blind" video was egregious.
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.
Lol, that's a really good comparison. My nephew loves Mr. Beast just as much as my Dad likes Dr. Phil. Agreed.
A lot of people genuinely think he does the videos to support the charity, not the other way around. It's mind-blowing.