Today’s video is sponsored by RAID: Shadow Legends.
Nope.
Just kidding, that would be awful.
It’s actually sponsored by ExpressVPN.
Alright, so just as I did in my last video, I’d like to emphasize that this video is
a criticism of the company, not a callout of the creators.
Bills must be paid, and that’s not easy when the bill-payer is YouTube incorporated.
I once got an email from YouTube informing me that I got demonetized for being an adult.
That didn’t happen, but the fact that you had to think about it proves why we do sponsorships.
And that’s why I’m glad to announce: This video is sponsored by ExpressVPN.
I don’t really know enough about technology to explain how a VPN works, but I’ve been
hacked enough times to know why I need one.
Someone stole my YouTube password last year.
They managed to steal it over a WiFi connection when I was editing my videos out in public,
which I didn’t even think was a thing?
But now with ExpressVPN, all of my data going to and from my laptop is encrypted.
Hackers can’t see it, your ISP can’t see it, not even ExpressVPN can see it.
Your entire livelihood is on the internet, so don’t let someone take it just because
your data was insecure.
Also, you can download ExpressVPN, change your location with one click, and then watch
Kiki’s Delivery Service and a ton of Studio Ghibli movies right from Netflix, so.
That right there would be enough to convince me.
Look, my Twitter trends are in Japanese.
I don’t speak Japanese.
Check out ExpressVPN from the link down below, and find out how you can get three months
free.
That’s ExpressVPN.com/dangelowallace.
So if you're somehow lucky enough to have never heard of RAID: Shadow Legends, you’re
not as lucky as you think you are because here’s a re-cap.
RAID: Shadow Legends is a game.
It’s not a good game, but that’s what my last video was about.
The only thing bigger than the lies RAID uses to advertise their game is their advertising
budget itself.
They've sponsored hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of ad reads.
So my bright idea in my last video was to put their sponsorship to the test.
I went through claim by claim and debunked their entire sponsorship script.
In doing so, I realized that they used a lot of deceptive or misleading language so that
their claims were technically true, even though they were still lying.
RAID: Shadow Legends is very committed to their half-truths though.
One of their claims is that it’s one of the highest-rated RPG’s on the Google Play
Store, which . . . sure.
But most of those high reviews were paid for to offset the thousands upon thousands of
horribly negative reviews.
Allegedly.
For some reason RAID is obsessed with maintaining an image of honesty and excellence, despite
the fact that everyone just considers them to be the poster child for prioritizing money
over the little things, like quality, or honesty.
I think the main conclusion that I came to in my video though is that RAID: Shadow Legends
just straight up lied about what it is.
It’s not an RPG, it’s just a pachinko machine with a few loading screens.
And like all gambling services, it makes bank.
Bank which in turn fuels the insane amount of RAID: Sponsorships that plague the poor
denizens of YouTube dot com.
So maybe with all these things being considered, I shouldn’t be quite so shocked at RAID’s
newest lie.
But if anything, I think I’m just moreso shocked that they thought anyone would fall
for this.
“Hi there, we do not sponsor, we cooperate only with those YouTubers who play our game
and want to be our influencers.
We do not pay money for it.
Signed, Alina”.
. . . So like, where do I start.
Let’s just start with the first sentence.
“Hi, there we do not sponsor”.
Then . . . then what are these.
Today’s Sponsor: RAID: Shadow Legends.
RAID- RAID- RAID- Thanks so much to RAID: Shadow Legends.
RAID: Shadow Legends.
I know you already know about RAID: Shadow Legends-
Just go to the YouTube search bar and type “install raid for free” and look what
comes up.
Everything.
Everything comes up.
Half of the videos on the website come up.
I feel like a disappointed parent.
Like I have a hypothetical toddler named Raid Shadow Wallace and he’s holding a red marker,
and there’s red marker all over the wall, and I ask hip “How did that get there”,
and he says “Look pops, I don’t draw on walls with red marker.
I don’t know what to tell you”.
How stupid do they think we are?
There’s levels to this.
There’s being so smart that you think everyone around you is stupid, and then there’s you
assuming everyone is so stupid that the only logical conclusion is that you yourself are
the stupidest.
Every word I read in this tweet is causing me to lose braincells, and I’m only six
words in.
By the time I finish reading it, I might actually believe it.
That was probably their plan all along.
“We cooperate only with those YouTubers who play our game and want to be our influencers.”
Let me explain something.
Nobody wants to be an influencer.
That’s just what happens when you have internet access and no other job prospects, and every
time I’m reminded that I am one, I just think ugh.
Why.
But if I did relish in being an influencer why would I want to be a RAID influencer.
That’s like saying, “I want to be a kids’ YouTuber” no, you probably just wanted to
be a YouTuber and wound up with an audience of kids because your content offers no value
for anyone over the age of 12.
Trust me, YouTubers don’t want to do RAID sponsorships.
They just want to pay for their food.
And RAID: Shadow Legends is the rundown little gas station that they have to stop at on the
road to financial stability.
Lastly, it says “We do not pay for it” . . . Great.
So of course, the internet reacted very negatively to this tweet, racking up over 800 comments
and 180 retweets, one of which was mine calling them out.
But people started to wonder about the tweet.
It was so absurd, that it didn’t seem real.
What if it actually wasn’t?
Let’s look at the sponsorship I did in this video.
I disclosed not once- It’s actually sponsored by ExpressVPN-
But twice- This video is sponsored by ExpressVPn-
that it is in fact, sponsored by ExpressVPN.
(DING).
On top of that, I also put this information in the description of this video.
If I haven’t made it clear by now, I want you to know that I was paid to promote a service.
It’s the same thing I would legally have to do if I was promoting RAID: Shadow Legends,
regardless of what RAID: Said.
And that’s because no matter what you do, you can’t outrun the FTC.
The United States Federal Trade Commission is a government agency that regulates consumer
protection.
It’s stops people like Jake Paul from trying to take advantage of people like Jake Paul
subscribers.
And if Jake Paul’s subscribers are anything to go by, it’s not very effective.
But still, there are rules that have to be followed, and they’re pretty straightforward.
In this handy FTC brochure called “Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers . . . ugh
. . . why.
You can see that I have to comply with the law when endorsing products and working with
brands.
I have to disclose whether I have any financial relationship with a brand, and this applies
to me even if I didn’t live in the United States, as long as it’s “reasonably forseeable
that the post will affect U.S. consumers”.
And that last part is very important, because this means that while RAID: Shadow Legends
is operating out of Israel, they have to follow FTC guidelines as well, since the YouTube
sponsorships that they arel paying for obviously affect U.S. consumers.
That’s why all the YouTubers disclosed the ads anyway.
In fact, I feel bad for the commentary community.
Making a video called “RAID broke the law” is a one-way ticket to massive views, but
seeing as half the YouTubers in this community signed contracts with RAID, they can’t even
make disparaging remarks about the company without getting in trouble.
They didn’t just sign a brand deal, they signed away their right to discourage people
from associating with RAID.
They signed away their right to make this video that you’re watching.
Then again, this video that you’re watching isn’t even worth half a RAID sponsorship
so actually I don’t feel sorry for them at all, and maybe I’m the silly one.
But still, RAID’s statement makes these YouTubers out to be liars, and puts them at
odds with the FTC.
Or at least, it would but honestly even something as incompetent as a US government agency can
probably very easily see that RAID is lying here, and that the YouTubers did the right
thing and disclosed their sponsorship.
So as you can see, it’s flat-out illegal to say that RAID doesn’t pay YouTubers to
do sponsorships.
But they still said it.
In fact, it's a little weird that they still said it, because barely two weeks prior, the
FTC announced that they’re cracking down on misleading advertising practices.
It says in no uncertain terms, “When companies launder advertising by paying an influencer
to pretend that their endorsement or review is untainted by a financial relationship,
this is illegal payola.”
In other words, YouTube’s biggest sponsor broke the law.
And I think they realized that, because they tried to take it back really really fast.
Just a couple days after RAID, you know, violated federal laws, they released a statement.
“Hi guys!
Some of you may have already seen the reply posted here earlier by one of the company’s
representatives regarding our coopration with YouTubers.
The reply was rather confusing and one-sided".
Nothing about their original statement was confusing.
How are the words “We do not sponsor”, “We do not pay money for it” confusing?
The only confusing part was the fact that they thought they’d get away with it.
Anyway, “We would like to shed some light on the situation.”
And to this they have attached, not a letter, not a notepad spology, but a screenshot, of
a Discord message.
The level of unprofessionalism . . . far too much.
So the meat of this message is as follows: “What Alina was talking about in this Tweet
is our cooperation with the group of YouTube content creators, the players that create
tutorials, reviews on our game and with whom we have a direct communication channel and
a special support program.
However, Alina was not referring to our marketing advertising campaign in the reply, which has
led to confusion and misunderstanding.
In any event, individuals taking part in any paid sponsored marketing campaigns through
YouTube and similar platform are obligated to include proper disclosure”.
Ohhhhhhhh.
So my entire video is wrong because they weren’t talking about not paying for sponsorships,
they were just talking about not paying gaming YouTubers who choose to make RAID: Shadow
Legends gameplay videos . . . is what they probably want me to say, but that’s obviously
not true, since they used the words “We do not sponsor” verbatim, AND, the whole
“we do not sponsor” tweet was in response to some guy asking Dollar Shave Club and RAID:
Shadow Legends to sponsor him as part of a conversation about pre-roll sponsors.
So basically, the moral of the story here is subscribe to my second channel.
I upload almost every single day there, and while the quality might not be as fancy as
this main channel I at least manage to avoid lying and violating federal laws.
For the most part.
Anyway, looks like I’ve gotten ten minutes of content out of this, so leave a like, tell
me what you think and subscribe if you haven’t already.
Thank you for watching and a big thank you to my 316,000 subscribers.
Okay, bye.