Who Needs ChatGPT When We’ve Got MrBeast

Plus a PSA for anyone running a Pride campaign this year

May 12, 2023

Dawn of the First Day

As you are reading this, there’s a very good chance I’ll be playing the new Zelda game (or watching Eurovision if you wait long enough, I can’t tell when y’all get to this thing). The early reviews are looking extremely good, and I expect this game will consume a lot of my free time over the next few weeks. I’ve loved the Zelda franchise since my first adventure as Link on the N64.

Okay, enough of me enjoying things. Let’s get to the links and then dive into some content I find sus.

Platform Updates

TikTok

Twitter

YouTube

Google

Twitch

Twitch made it easier to edit clips for TikTok and YouTube Shorts

Tumblr

Marissa Mayer on the AI search race, technology fears, and her biggest Yahoo regrets

Amazon

Twitter Alts

I got on Bluesky! Follow me at @camcron.bsky.social if you’re there too.
Live audio is getting another go on Bluesky (I don’t have strong feelings about live audio rooms as a feature, but the way federated social protocols are enabling this is cool)
Artifact is taking on Twitter and Substack by letting you follow writers

Culture Movers

The AI Future is Here; His Name is MrBeast

MrBeast exists in a strange superposition of pop culture. He is one of the biggest YouTubers, with a massive following and a massive, sprawling content creation business. He’s also not something I’ve ever heard a normie discuss. Like have you ever been out to drinks at a bar or dinner with friends and heard someone go, “hey, did you catch that latest MrBeast video?”

“But Cameron, does anyone talk about YouTube content like that?” you say. Do you not remember the pre-2020 Bon Appetit Test Kitchen? I rest my case.

Regardless, we must accept the reality that MrBeast is hugely popular online. His videos get a ton of views, in large part because he’s dedicated himself to the craft of YouTubing. If you are unfamiliar with his content (first of all, lucky), much of it exists in a genre of what I can only describe as “hype philanthropy.” He gives away a lot of stuff like in “Last to Take Hand Off Jet, Keeps It!” or “Survive 100 Days In a Circle, Win $500,000.” It’s a bizarre combination of radio morning show stunts and rejected Squid Game plotlines. And the Squid Game comparison is fair because he’s also produced “$456,000 Squid Game In Real Life!”

“But Cameron, isn’t giving people money a good thing. What’s wrong with being charitable? Why do I get the feeling you dislike this guy?”

Well, reader, you’re right. While I think the act of sharing your wealth with others is great, the carefully crafted YouTube stunts of MrBeast don’t feel motivated by a spirit of charity. They are content plays. Over the years MonsieurBeast has carefully studied what works on YouTube and what doesn’t. The topic, pacing, tone, length, and style have all been deliberately engineered to get views on this specific platform. Just look at the video thumbnails. There’s a formula here.

Sure, there are slight variations–open mouth with manic wide eyes or closed mouth with vacant stare–but I suspect even these variations are carefully considered tests. I’m not just making this up because I dislike seeing this man’s teeth so often. He’s done interviews where he talks about his “formula for going viral.” SeñorBeast frames it as just understanding human psychology, what people want to see, but everything he says is so specific to how YouTube surfaces content and how people watch it there.

Honestly, I admire this careful and dedicated study of a single content system. When I ran social for brands, I had to do some version of this for every single channel I owned. Rarely did I have enough time to learn a single one as deeply as MrBeast has learned YouTube. But I think that study is also what makes his videos suck.

There’s something soulless and unfulfilling about all of them. They have nothing to say. They are the epitome of content. Never art. Which is exactly what I think generative AI will be good at. In fact, I asked ChatGPT to generate some video ideas for me.

There’s a lot of technical skill involved in taking “Giving Away $5,000 to Small Instagram Influencers” and turning it into an actual video. I don’t want to dismiss that. It’s just that the core ideas in this category of content have felt robotic for so long already, and that hasn’t stopped it from being hugely popular.

As humans, we can’t go all out 24/7. We need variety and cognitive breaks. Especially when engaging with good entertainment and art. I really liked Beau is Afraid when I went to see it last week, but I would have clawed my eyes out if you asked me to watch it again the next day. I needed time and space away from it to soak in its ideas and themes. I needed to rewatch an old Grey’s Anatomy or listen to a podcast about old episodes of Drag Race. If I was a different person (who didn’t also object to him running a company town), I might have enjoyed turning my brain off for a little as a MrBeast video played.

I think generative AI will be good at making this kind of content. The filler stuff that only ever needs to be good enough. The comfortingly formulaic noise can keep us company as we fold laundry. As long as we value artists who are aspiring to something more, I don’t really have a problem with letting the AI, or formula-obsessed YouTubers, fill time between my encounters with the good stuff.

Pride Marketing PSA

June will be here before we know it. With June comes Pride Month, and with Pride Month comes Pride brand campaigns. I’d like to give any other marketers reading this some advice now while there’s still time to pull the plug on a bad idea.

Give queer people money.

If your Pride campaign doesn’t in some way provide meaningful resources to actual queer people, don’t do it. That can be as simple as paying queer creators to make content. It could involve donating to an LGBTQ+ charity. It could mean hiring an LGBTQ+ owned small business to make merch. But you gotta show up for our community if you expect us to show up for you, and that means dollars.

We need money to fight back against anti-gay and transphobic legislation across the country. We need money to care for the elders in our community. We need money to take care of queer kids who don’t receive support from their birth families. We need money to keep the artists and small businesses that create safety, community, and joy for queer folks running. Acknowledgment, visibility, and vocal support are all great. But if you are asking queer people and their allies to buy your products and services because you support the LGBTQ+ community–which is what a Pride marketing campaign is, after all–we expect you to put some money back into our community too.

Kinda Brief

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