I must be jaded to assume everyone posting videos on youtube is doing so for profit, but... judging by the amount of expensive professional equipment he has, I suspect he is doing this for profit, and not just "entertainment"
I'm sure he is making a profit off it but whatever good is happening is still getting done. He could be a famous YouTuber by playing pranks or video games and make millions too - is that better?
I share an unsettled feeling about this. I think it is because things like this are a visceral reminder of differences between the rich and poor. A life altering struggle for a poor person is a solved by ten minutes of amusement from a rich person - "here, take my card and buy whatever you need."
I don't believe these kind of projects are designed to be economical :). He is building this to drive traffic to his youtube channel, which in turns, pays for the next outlandish project.
He is using YouTube to promote what he does, but AFAIK not in the form of YouTube ads, instead he publishes content about what he does in the form of videos on his channel.
And I expect that he's near the top of those numbers, because his viewers are probably buying expensive tools based on his recommendations rather than an equivalent number of views watching a cartoon for kids or cute animals or something else difficult to market.
At close to a million views on many of his videos, and something like $0.01 per ad view, he's likely making on the order of $10k per video. Buying and destructively testing some shop vacs, hose clamps, or whatever is just part of that budget.
He’s obviously saying that the views he gets from some video doesn’t always pull in the money it took to create that video which is mostly a point of how much he invests into zany sets, huge giveaways, and such.
The article mentions about selling kits, so it's pretty obvious that his videos would be at least partially motivated by commercial aspirations. Yes? I called the comment silly as it seemed to be saying "I not only disapprove of this entrepreneur's target market, he is also employing deceptive marketing tactics"
2, 3 or 5 billion don't matter if you still have tens of billions left.
I'm not saying he shouldn't outsource his videos. What I'm saying is that this looks more like a professionally made commercial (advertising his personal brand). I'm pretty sure it cost O(hours) of his time (consider even getting to the set - you can see this is a professional set, so probably in some studio; I also doubt this was done in one take given how there are other actors around including the skating Santa Clauses). All in all, it really feels artificial and dishonest. What kind of person would even come up with idea of creating such a video in the first place?
That's not the impression I got. To me it sounded like he was hoping to earn money from it. He said the same thing about his youtube channel, which also seemed very unlikely.
The basis is self evident: he is an affiliate marketer for an overpriced product with astronomical margins (investors piled in at north of a billion) making health claims without scientific basis, 3rd party testing, or transparent labeling.
Good on him for getting his bag, but the incentives are clear: he made his name before sponsorships with quality content, but now the demand for ad impressions has outpaced his supply of meaningful insights. He needs to keep churning out videos to earn sponsorship dollars, so it's a natural symbiotic choice to invite low quality guests.
They bring the content (and controversy / engagement / followers), he supplies the veneer of legitimacy, studio lighting and somber expression in the thumbnail. The advertisers benefit and all get their payday, as long as his adherents keep overpaying for processed powder with multivitamin.
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