this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
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Yeah, almost exclusively either Us-centric and not even available where I live, or so gosh darn expensive that I just will never use the stuff advertised (looking at you, magic spoon)
Pro tip: I'm in the US and typically stay away from companies that advertise on a bunch of YouTube channels and podcasts. It usually means that they put more dollars towards advertising than the quality of their products and you've likely heard of them through advertising than a good word of mouth.
MeUndies is shit but expensive underwear, Casper mattresses are going to fuck your back in a few years, Dollar Shave Club is grossly overpriced for what it is, a lot of actual experienced therapists stay away from Better Help and it's a borderline scam, Liquid Death is just tap water in a can, RayCons are just mediocre headphones sold at a premium, etc.
If they have money to throw towards every other YouTuber and podcaster, then they're probably only prioritizing growth over maintaining and improving their quality and operations. That's just how it is.
you should check out linustechtips. The sponsors they get/accept are actually decent reputable companies with decent products.
Linus's video on their sponsors gave them way too much benefit of the doubt for scummy practices I would have dropped a company for
To be fair a lot of us here on Lemmy are likely to be more principled or have staunch opinions on companies and products - we've abandoned the orange R, and likely centralised social media for one thing.
From my POV, Linus seems to tone down his views in videos, and his writers are the ones doing the research for the video rather than him. He's a lot more critical of companies on the WAN show from what I've seen
Doesn't really matter if he is critical on one segment but not so much either. Or that the blame is shifted to the writers. But, I guess it's just to say whoever it is sponsored segments are not to be trusted by default, and best being ignored.
Like even pro athletes end up shilling and using products that end up hurting them despite being in the 1% in their field like Lonzo Ball and his crappy shoes.
Here in Germany, the national soccer team has been advertising Nutella for decades. I don't think they eat the chocolate flavored sugar-fat as much as they are paid to pretend...
My first impression for anything on YouTube is untrustworthy spam. Don't matter who it is. It's just the reality of paid sponsorships, and anyone being paid is going to generally talk up the positives, and talk up how much integrity they have. It's not just a YouTube thing either. I assume the same for celebrity endorsements even if it is in an area they are an expert in like sports, since product they use isn't the quality that reaches consumers. Sometimes even the products they use is crap and ends up hurting them. Example Lonzo Ball and the shoes he endorsed.
It's just general good skepticism towards the marketing machine. Nobody is to be trusted when it comes to what they are paid to shill.
Linus is getting sponsorship from either actually useful tech software that is for enterprise or it’s some weird niche software or product that no one ever needs.