The Failure Of The Fine Brothers

the fine bros went from gaining 150 million views per month in mid-2019 to around 10 million views per month recently representing a decline of over 90 in only 36 months what went wrong the peak of their colossal-sized failure would eventually occur in mid-2020 however signs of impending doom first began in early 2016 when the fine bros attempted to trademark and copyright the entire reaction genre on youtube well kind of i'm sure many of you remember the drama right it started with this video simply titled react world in which the fine bros would frame an announcement in a way that sounded like if you want to make any kind of reaction video for yourself on youtube the fine bros are now entitled to a cut of revenue and all you people who are thinking about making reaction videos anywhere in the world well by the way we own you in the terms it's they own 50 of your brand deals 60 of your rev share you can't even post your video to facebook apparently without their permission that sounds like a great deal sign me up the farm bros would then go on to request that their audience not watch or support any other channel making reaction content and we implore everyone not to support those companies and channels when you notice someone ripping someone's format off don't stand for it however when you take a look at the farm rose history it's hardly surprising that they felt entitled to the genre the pair had built what you might call a reaction empire beginning with kids react to viral videos back in 2010. the series became popular because it took already successful viral content and added further insight into it by having kids provide their own opinion yet while this was an incredibly successful formula going back to their react world drama in 2016 it would also be a point of criticism they complained about having their shows and formats blatantly stolen by companies and people both online and on television yet at the same time they were blatantly ripping off these viral videos then collecting the ad revenue by simply having kids react to them oh these are those guys who complain about licensing even though they use people's videos unlicensed after finding success with kids react back in 2010 the fine bros moved on to teens react youtubers react and eventually elders react at which point they'd find themselves in a brand new controversy despite acting as if they started and own the reaction genre on youtube their audience would come to discover that seniors react had already been done on a channel called still cosmo in april 2012 only one month prior to the finals beginning elders react in may 2012. what was even more infuriating was that despite still cosmo having started satanist react first the farmers would take down every single one of still cosmo's seniors react videos claiming copyright infringement which didn't sit too well with their fan base as mentioned previously i worked for the fine brothers when they took down seniors react there was major backlash from the fans they moved to censor any comment on all of their channels so people didn't know about it this was par for the course for them as they look to control the conversation in regards to anything involving their properties and goodbye the fine bros acting as if they own the genre people began to dig up examples of bill cosby doing kids react content on television dating all the way back to the 1990s however this seemed to have no effect on their perceived ownership of the genre as they've then gone to call out ellen degeneres stating that she had also stolen their apparent idea of making reaction videos wow the ellen show just did a kids reacting to old technology didn't mention us didn't do it with us not cool needed to go to their facebook page and blast the kids react links even if they didn't realize even more important to tell them thanks for the help here's the link to go leave comments accompanied by another post their twitter reading a shame to not have at ellen show reach out to us versus just fully taking it as their own this happens too often whilst the fembros clearly expected support from their audience calling out ellen only gave everyone another excuse to clown on them at the fine rose at the ellen show welcome to german television late 90s to now you did nothing revolutionary at the phone bros you don't own the concept anyone can do kids reacting it's fun and enjoyable at the fine bros at the ellen show jimmy kimmel has done react videos with kids too reactions cannot be patented that's silly this isn't new for them they've always been extremely aggressive in taking down smaller channels on youtube even with remotely similar concepts their dmca claims destroyed any momentum any of their competitors could have possibly built up then they do a good job burying any information about them ever having done it and denying doing so the difference here is that ellen is too big for them to bully and lay false dmca claims against so they had to try and use their audience to do the dirty work for them they seem to think they're original when all of their success has come on the back of others all of this should set a pretty good baseline for why in 2016 their attempt to trademark the word react was completely and utterly ludicrous in doing so they'd lose 500 000 subscribers over the course of a week at which point the pair began to backpedal heavily the fine brothers would release an official statement claiming that they would rescind all of their react trademarks and applications discontinued the react world program as well as released all of their past content id claims such as the takedown of still cosmo seniors react series additionally the pair would upload an apology video in which they stated that the goal was never to trademark the entire react series on youtube and was rather to trademark their very specific reaction style we were never trying to say that every video or someone reacts to something else is something we would try to control when we reference licensing the react format we only meant our specific series not the overall genre of reaction videos we do not own the genre however while the goal of any apology is to mend one's reputation some clear mistakes can be observed within the fine bros video which would only contribute to their decline firstly they fail to keep their call and instead responded to the audience with an angry emotional temperament just because we have or might get trademarks doesn't mean we're going to run around and start taking down videos sounds like they're both holding back pure rage and hatred i feel like i'm being lectured by my parents about how it was wrong to punch my teacher lmfao how is this an apology they were literally just yelling at us and acting like we're idiots i forget how pissy they looked in this if you're making an apology for doing something shitty maybe it's not the best idea to be visibly fuming at everyone for having foiled your scheme now it's understandable as to why the pair were a little volatile they lost 500 000 subscribers in a week and had negative news article after negative news article which is something that none of us have experienced so maybe we're not even in a position to comment on this but cooler heads always prevail their emotional response did nothing but display how much the drama had gotten to them and when you combine this with their massive back pedal of apologizing and promising to throw out the react world program altogether it displayed this kind of pathetic subservience to their fan base or simply put they made it obvious that they cared way too much which would prove to be the ultimate detriment after the real drama began in mid 2020. in the lead up to this point in time specifically the fourth of june 2020 the fine bros have chosen to involve themselves in the black lives matter movement by uploading a video simply titled this is my story which contain an introductory message reading in support of hashtag black lives matter and the social unrest in america surrounding the killing of george floyd and countless injustices against people of color we asked our reactors if they would be willing to share their own stories of being black in america they did they are part of our fbe family and we want to help amplify their voices thank you for listening the fbe team clearly aligning themselves and their entire brand as allies of the movement yet opting into the game of politics turned out to be an incredibly dumb decision for the fine brothers because only a week after posting the video in support of black lives matter their audience would dig up a video from 2009 in which benny fine had done blackface in light of this other black creators from within the company came out stating that rather than being supported they had actually faced racism while working for the fine brothers one of which discussing their experience in a youtube video so many former staff members and cast members have bravely spoken out and reached out to me privately about how they were mistreated during their time at the company as people of color and or women and other people who have witnessed their mistreatment articles would then be posted such as this one by insider which stated that within fine brothers entertainment brooklyn fenton a former reactor tone employee said she was told at times that having a reactor with lighter skin on the left of the thumbnail where viewers would tend to see them first appeals to the fans six sources told insider that they were sometimes told to put a person with a lighter skin tone on the left and several other former employees said publicly on twitter that this had happened to them insider conducted a review of 1092 thumbnails that included faces of reactors 31 of the thumbnail showed two white reactors 0.3 percent showed two black reactors as a result of these allegations the fine brothers would release a classic spineless loser apology stating over the past decade fb has tried to use our platform as a force for good making videos to speak out against racism sexism homophobia and bullying but while we incorrectly thought that creating content at our company to help in the fight against many different kinds of discrimination was enough to make amends it is clear to us that we should have done more the trap that the fine brothers had fallen into was obvious because it's one that so many other public figures seem to fall into they thought that just because they had built a business and a following on youtube it was now their job a responsibility to enact some kind of historical social change in the world why can't you just be a good entertainer and leave it at that they claimed in their apology that they should have done more in terms of talking about social issues yet were blind to the reality that they actually talked about it too much they should have never talked about any of these topics in the first place because reality check you're a channel where people go to laugh at kids reacting to various videos on the internet and you're not the mother teresa foundation the ways in which the fine brothers were mistreating their employees eventually went deeper after a tick tocker named one minute talk show would post a video interviewing two former members of kids and teens react which stated the following check the numbers yo kids react teens react fell off the fine bros were you like teenager act too wait can you come we're just cringed and want to let us speak our mind on the show about speaking our minds they were on our dick and balls bro that sucked we couldn't say nothing let's say that you started to give an answer that was like your real opinion you would just cut it out the video honestly they wouldn't put it in right they'd ask questions that were like pointing you towards the direction of a certain answer the pair would then go on to discuss one of the most iconic reactors of kids in teens react leah marie johnson well i had such a huge crush on the blonde one you know what i'm talking about she's like in her head stage right now is she really yeah goes deep because like she'll just randomly go live and like she's in like a house and it's it's kind of fire referencing her being sane high in countless different instagram live streams leah marie johnson in addition to these guys who appeared to be attending college show that reacting for the fine brothers didn't exactly lead to hollywood stardom in the way that they might have expected it's hardly surprising either it's not like they were learning any skills by reacting to videos for the fine brothers which left them with famous faces and nothing else as a result of all the controversy over a six-month time period the fine bros went from an average of around 100 million views per month to only 30 million per month before announcing that 17 staff members had been laid off the fine bros would then rebrand themselves from fine brothers entertainment to react yet this failed to stop their decline in viewership as it tumbled further to around 10 million per month competition had simply become too strong in the reaction genre every popular stream was uploading their own reaction content to youtube whilst the former ceo of react media would leave the fine brothers to work for mr beast who now makes infinitely better reaction content than the fine brothers ever could in late 2021 the fine brothers sold the company to electric monster for an undisclosed price citing that they plan on stepping away to finally spend some quality time with our family and the two have been silent on all social media since selling the channel

Channel: SunnyV2

Views: 4,250,119

Keywords: bills, wills, the complete downfall of the fine bros aka react!, what happened to the fine bros, the fine bros exposed, the fine bros react world, the fine bros controversy, benny fine blackface, benny fine rafi fine, shane dawson, milly the puppet, fine bros racist, fine bros racist mario, fine bros, kids react, youtubers react, react world controversy, rafi fine, teens react, react world, elders react, the fine bros drama, benny fine drama, benny fine racist

Id: Nv8gr44qFUA

Length: 10min 58sec (658 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 21 2022