well hello ladies gentlemen and everyone watching i'm your host thereportoftheweek and
welcome to this newest video now i know we have an interesting title but i will say this right now
this is not any sort of secret review so even though the title is what it is you know did i
just fool everyone and we're just trying out some special french fries or something no this
is just a random video that i wanted to do because i know i've been doing a lot of reviews lately and
i thought to myself hey let's sit down let's have a talk and uh let's take a look you know at least
at a different aspect of the channel and cover a subject that i don't think i've ever talked about
before at least in greater detail now this is a question that i will be asked from time to time as
i go through the comments i'll see what you guys have to say about the latest uh videos and uploads
every now and then i will see a comment that will come up from someone i think asking an honest
legitimate question is this review sponsored you know are you sponsored by this company
because you speak so highly of you know let's say this item or are you sponsored by an opposing
company to bash their competition some people will say are you a sellout is this sponsored
review bra did you get compromised by the mcdonald's mafia or anything in between and i know
those are honest questions and my answer to you is no believe it or not none of the reviews that
i do are sponsored believe it or not and i wanted to cover that because again i know with what i do
and what i've been doing for nine years on this channel is so many reviews where i mean
i know i have fun with them i know that what i do for i kind of make it like a little bit of
a show you know i have the whole procedure that i do and of course all all too formal analysis
but i have a little bit of fun with it too but i think in the end some people maybe they watch it
for entertainment some people just watch it for the memes some people just like watching it just
because other people are inexplicably you know drawn in and then of course a lot of people watch
the reviews because they are looking for an honest assessment of this new item that you know they see
a lot of ads for and they want to know is this item worth my hard earned money and my precious
time and i don't say those sarcastically at all obviously you know the economy is what it is right
now and time is a precious thing and uh sometimes people will see my assessment they will see that
sometimes i will have scathing criticisms of a certain place or i will sing praises of another
and some people think are you sure you're saying this honestly you know do you really
like the item this much um but my answer to you is absolutely i have gotten a few offers to do
sponsored reviews here and there but i think one thing that's that's important to clarify
a lot of people you know they see a channel with you know let's say this amount of subscribers
which is it still blows my mind it's it's honestly unfathomable to me quite honestly and it's it's
like they see that and they think obviously you must get approached by a lot of these companies
you know let's say if um mcdonald's releases a new item obviously they must come to you and
offer you a certain deal to do this or do that or to appear in an ad or a commercial
uh you know for some sort of product placement or you know they'll pay you for a good review etc
believe it or not i actually don't get many emails like that at all i think the amount of emails
that i've ever gotten from even like the real big companies and i'm just thinking right now like um
you know the main fast food chains is probably fewer than i could count on one hand
and i'm actually going to go over some of the experiences uh that have been presented my way
from some of these big companies now first i want to say why i don't do sponsored reviews
and i think it just comes down to a matter of what you're comfortable with uh what you
like to do and really how you want to go about things but the reason why i don't do sponsored
reviews uh you know let's say giving a positive review in exchange for either samples of the item
or for monetary compensation is it just doesn't strike me the right way now to me i think it
just compromises the integrity of what i do and it just feels very dishonest honestly it's just
it doesn't feel right to me you know to sit there and again i know a lot of people watch these
videos very seriously to see is this item good is it bad and it just feels really really wrong to me
to you know either accept a you know a payment or something and even if something's bad to sit
there and lie and tell you that it's good and to go get this and it just really it really rubs me
the wrong way because when i started this channel out and the way i still want to continue it
i want to do fair reviews i just want to go out i just want to try something you know just like
you you see the ad for it i just want to go to the place not get any sort of special thing made
i want to get the item and i just want to honestly give it a shot and see is this any good or is it
not and i think one of the best parts of it is at least for me anyway is trying out one
product after the next you get that variability you know it's like they of course they promote
it and advertise it a certain way to try to make it as appealing as possible but you never really
know if you've never tried it before is it really going to be good is it going to be really bad
what's it gonna be and it's fun for me to actually just research that try it out and even just see
for myself and sometimes i'm really surprised like i i look at an item and i think the thing
like it looks like literal slop you know and i think this there's no way this can be good but
i say i'm going to give it a shot and we'll see what happens and then it turns out to be delicious
and you know other times you get these places where it looks like it's going to be really good
and it's just a disaster and that's also fun in a way you know because you never know what you're
going to get it's like a dice roll and it's a variability that also makes it a lot of fun
and as a result i just want to give you an honest and sincere assessment to just let you know if
it's a buy if it's not if it's worth your time worth your while etc but i think some people
they might speculate like a little too much for instance i saw okay it's it's about seven
minutes into the video and all of a sudden you reached for this blue receptacle is this finally
the proof we've been looking for that you were bought out review bra by the blue chalice lobby
but no my answer is that i just like the way this glass looks and it's been it's been an iconic part
of this channel for many many years this is what it comes down to but like over the years
as i was saying earlier in the video i have gotten approached on occasion by some companies
for instance and i have the computer right here back in 2018 i was actually offered um
by taco bell to fly all the way out to california and visit their corporate headquarters and go to
their test kitchen and you know kind of do a video about that and it just didn't strike me
the right way because it seemed like of course it would be a positive video um about taco bell and i
like taco bell they have some good they had some good products but they are not a perfect company
i think some of the the recent menu adjustments there i certainly find it disagreeable and you
know the grande stacker that i tried you could see that for yourself was not a good item i don't have
anything out against taco bell but i don't want to sit there and say everything from them is good
either way and then again in late 2018 they actually sent me this uh xbox and uh i was
shocked i didn't know what it was at first because all i know is that one day this real heavy box
showed up at my door and it was from taco bell and i opened it up for the first time on camera
and i was just blown away number one the fact that they would send something like that to me
of all people but also the fact that i am not a gamer at all was also is this kind of funny
some people were wondering whatever happened to that xbox believe it or not because i was
not a gamer i never was really going to use it i sold it really cheap to someone who i knew
was going to enjoy it who was going to use it so someone out there has everything that i got
i sold it really cheap to them and then i wrote up a check and donated the proceeds to the local spca
because it just seemed like you know they gave me this thing it wasn't really of much interest
or use to me so at the very least i could perhaps do a little bit of good to the world and uh you
know at least do something with it so that's what happened to that xbox but it is it is no
longer in my possession but did that xbox suddenly sway my viewpoint of taco bell no it didn't they
have some good items they have some bad items but everything that they release is independent
and we'll just see how it is when we try it that's what it comes down to regardless of
you know what offer is extended my way the only video that i ever really did that you could even
somewhat consider sponsored was all the way back in 2016. whereas this company called soylent they
sent me this like this meal replacement supplement and they just said well you know we can you can
do the video we'll send you like an eight pack of them and even then in the description i mentioned
that it was an unbiased review but it was supplied to me by soylent and that's what it came down to
but domino's also just a recent example there i tried out their chicken taco pizza and i gave it
a shot i tried it out and i thought it was good i thought it was a good pizza to tell you the truth
but even then it was like okay i finished the review and i was ready to upload it and i got
this email from the domino's marketing team and it wasn't like a serious sponsorship but they were
saying we can make this pizza special for you and send it to you and then you can review it
from there um but i just kindly let them know no it's okay you know i actually just got the pizza
myself and i already tried it out i appreciate the offer but no everything is okay don't worry and uh
that's that was that so i get some offers here and there from major companies but it's nothing
serious i've never been you know approached let's say from mcdonald's and they say if you give a
good review of uh you know these chicken nuggets uh we will give you a free tesla or something
like that i think that would be absolutely absurd but i've never gotten any sort of
offers like that i still do get you know different emails from different uh companies
many small businesses uh independent sellers but again a lot of them they just i don't know they
just don't really rub me the right way where it's like they say you know we will give you this item
uh you know complimentary if you give us a good review and you know direct all of your viewers
to our website and again that just doesn't seem uh it just doesn't strike me as honest i don't
know look this is just how business is this is just the this is just the nature of the beast
but it's just something that i don't know i just don't feel comfortable doing um but for instance
like i got this email the other day where they were and it just it was really weird they said
uh how much would it cost if you offer a 100 popeyes gift card to your subscribers
the thing is is that this wasn't even from popeyes this is just like from some random individual so
i i passed on that that just didn't seem uh it just it was just strange uh sometimes i'll get
offers from places that would be very interesting but it's just not what i review for instance this
distillery in france i said that they would send a batch of absinthe over to me to do a review of and
well i think it would make for an entertaining video i just don't do those sorts of reviews but
it would be it would be amusing i would say that sometimes i'll get just again totally unrelated
products like this like this one where um i don't know just little different sorts of inexpensive
gadgets i suppose and again it's just that's not really what i promote i just thought to myself
and they wanted me to give a good review for everything too and i was just thinking
you know this just isn't what i'm about sorry about that the video cut off on me this happens
every now and then when i prattle on about things for too long it's like it's like the camera's way
of saying all right it's it's time to be quiet now um but i guess what i'm just trying to say is that
in the end it's a question that i've been asked before because i know you know what i do lots of
lots of items are tried lots of opinions are cast and i think sometimes yeah the item really is just
that good and that's why i rave so much about it some people they also might be like well what how
do you get the items so quickly well i just try to really make the effort to get it usually on the
day of the release um or the day after you know as soon as i can just to try to be you know topically
relevant and that's all that that comes down to but it's not like anything set up or any of that
and while i do get offers you know i never really i never really accept them i always
try to be very polite about it but it's just not what i'm about it's not why i started this channel
and it's just not something that i'm comfortable doing and i know that for some
a sponsorship really might be the difference of even being able to pay the bills or not
if they do youtube for a living and i understand that sometimes people need to do what they do
i get that all i think is that if someone is going to do a sponsored video just let people know let
everyone know that the video is sponsored and that's all that it comes down to i think a lot of
people really don't have too big of an issue with product placement or a sponsored video just as
long as they know that it is and that's all that it has to be a short little disclaimer and a lot
of people are really good about that they just say okay uh you know the following video is sponsored
by whoever or whatever they have a little disclaimer or they even just click the button on
youtube to let people know that there's a product uh placement or whatever it is a paid promotion
and it's as easy as that and because in that way you're still able to do what you have to
do you know everything works out that way and your audience knows at least uh just how the video is
and even if something is sponsored in some cases doesn't always mean that it is totally deceptive
sometimes it's really just name dropping something or promoting something or giving a mini commercial
for one thing or another and those sorts of sponsorships you know i don't really have a
problem with it's just i've never really gotten approached by any company that i would really
feel comfortable doing that with but who knows you know if sometimes on my podcast i always accept
offers for that but even that's been a little you know a little iffy lately but uh any sort of like
downright review you need to do this you need to do that um you need to say this
or that and give this certain impression of the product i just does not strike me the right way
and it's just not something i'm comfortable doing and nothing i ever want to do because
it's just not to me it's not fair anyway and that's just that's just my take on it
so sometimes i get a lot of comments about that and i hope that i was able to just clear the uh
we'll clear the airwaves about that clear the uh waters or whatever the i don't know whatever the
figure of speech i'm thinking about is in terms of that but i hope it's able to settle that question
sometimes i just like the items sometimes i just hate the items but that's all it comes
down to it's just my viewpoint my viewpoint alone and whether it's agreeable or not that's purely
up to you but my thoughts on the items this is based on on really what i'm feeling as i try
it out and that's all that i've got for you oh i did get i did get asked before and i figure i'll
just i'll just show it for the heck of it uh some people were saying you know do you still wear um
you know a pocket watch when you uh when you wear the three-piece suit and believe it or
not i still do still have it right here this the second hand has some issues but it is functional
and uh you can see if i stand up for a moment uh you can see there it is on the vest so yes i still
i still do wear a pocket watch and it's still in good shape again probably needs to be fixed at
some point but i still do that was just a question that i've actually gotten some comments and some
emails about recently and i thought well next time i wear one i'll uh i i will reveal the big secret
about the uh so the pocket watch a gate right that's that's what's happening right now but
that's all that we've got yeah i don't know i just wanted to talk about some random things today
and uh have some light conversation next video is probably just going to be review
for what who knows we'll just find out i'll just peruse around i'll see what there is to uh
to try out and we'll just go from there whatever it is uh hey we'll see we'll see how good or bad
it is right when we get to it that's all that i've got for you ladies and gentlemen i'm your
host the report of the week and uh today we were just talking about sponsorships you know again
nothing wrong with them if you really want to do a sponsorship uh it's purely your decision but all i
ask on a personal level is to just have honesty and let everyone know that you know the outcome
may be altered as a result of it and that's all that it takes honesty and transparency and uh you
know that's just it just doesn't feel right to me but that's all it comes down to you know you
do you and i'll do me and we'll all live happily together that's that's what's important in the end
all right that's all that i've got for you ladies and gentlemen uh by the way if you do
want to check out my newest podcast you can listen in at uh youtube.com
v o r w podcast that's the channel name you could simply search a v-o-r-w you can find it
anywhere podcasts are found on any of the big sites just those four letters v-o-r-w
listen in it's a talk show where i discuss many different topics but it's fun to listen broadcast
also goes out on am and shortwave radio for listeners all around the world as well but i hope
you could tune in for that that's all that i've got for you be safe wherever you are be healthy
and do take care i'm your host the report of the week signing off for now