How do YouTubers make money? The most obvious would be from ads, where eligible YouTubers do get a cut of ads shown on videos. Another way, and something that’s more within their control, is to advertise for another company. But there are rules surrounding these types of advertisements. Creators must be forthcoming that these are ads. Unfortunately for YouTuber MrBeast, it seems that a few of his videos and channels have supposedly run afoul of CARU’s advertising guidelines.
CARU calls on MrBeast to improve YouTube advertising
CARU identified several concerning advertising practices on the MrBeast YouTube channel. Investigators found that video descriptions and pinned comments contained promotional content that wasn’t clearly identified as advertising, making it difficult for children in the audience to recognize these messages as paid promotions. This violates CARU’s guidelines requiring that advertising be clearly distinguishable to young viewers.
Additionally, CARU took issue with a promotional video featuring what appeared to be a legitimate blind taste test comparing Feastables chocolate to “top European chocolates.” The video shows all participants supposedly preferring the MrBeast product. While the YouTuber claimed the demonstration wasn’t meant to be taken seriously, CARU determined that children would reasonably interpret it as a valid product comparison.
Other issues
It seems that CARU doesn’t only have issues with the way MrBeast advertises his products. According to the organization, there are issues that extend beyond basic advertising. We’re looking to sweepstakes promotions and children’s privacy protection.
CARU found that Feastables’ “Blue Wave $10K” and Halloween sweepstakes failed to clearly disclose free entry methods, minimum age requirements, and winning odds. Instead, they buried this information in FAQ sections. This means that the promotions might have put pressure on children to purchase multiple chocolate bars daily to maximize their chances of winning.
This includes marketing text like “MORE BARS = MORE ENTRIES.” There were also some potential privacy violations. For instance, the sweepstakes collected personal information including names, phone numbers, and addresses from participants without proper age verification or parental consent. This potentially violates federal COPPA regulations. Lastly, The Feastables website also used pop-ups to collect contact information that was then shared with third-party companies.
MrBeast and his Feastables company have since responded to the investigation. It appears that they do not agree with all the conclusions and the premises it was based on. They also say that some of these issues raised by CARU have since been revised and/or discontinued.
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