Nerd: Shane Dawson, the most popular YouTuber of the moment, just finished an 8-part collaboration with the most hated YouTuber, Jake Paul. In the finale of the series, Shane asked Jake to respond to the criticisms in our last video. Shane: There's a video right now that a lot of people are talking about. From a channel called Nerd City. The Rewired Soul: Ooooooohhhhhh!! Oooohhh!! Everybody was telling Shane to watch the Nerd City video. Everybody was telling Shane did it ! Nerd: Jake said that concerns about advertising to children are ridiculous— that his merch simply reminds kids to be happy, and that we should shut the fuck up. The Rewired Soul: Jake Paul just clapped back at Nerd City. He does not take advantage of children, YOU are just a hater. Nerd: Jake responded poorly to being challenged about his tactics. Let's take a closer look at that interview, as well as companies that Jake founded to sell corporate messaging to kids, and statements from Jake Paul himself, that directly contradict what he told Shane Dawson. Let's start with a big lie. Jake: I don't think a kid would— actually believe that and be like, "Wow, I'm not cool if I don't have this" and like, "Hey Mom, like, I need this to be cool. Will you buy this for me?" Nerd: Bullshit. Jake, if you didn't believe that, then why did you speak at a conference just a few months ago, to brag about having that power over your fans? Here's how you fuzzed over that event in your vlog. Jake: Woke up this morning I had to do like a big speech at this business event. It went pretty good, check it. Announcer: Let's welcome Jake Paul onto the stage, with Kevin Gould. Jake: Hold on, be right there. Nerd: But what was it really? That was a conference, according to their own press release, where one of the major goals was "educating brands on how to get kids to buy things, using social influencers". The name of the panel you led was "Influencing the Buy: Tapping into the Power of Social Influencers". "The Internet has given rise to a vast new crop of stars that have a massive impact on the purchasing decisions of younger generations." And you are on the stage leading that panel, because you're an expert at getting kids to buy things. This article in Forbes is about how a 9-year-old asks his dad to buy a Lamborghini, just because of the way you talk about the car in your vlogs. The merch is easier to say "yes" to. Shane: When I watched that video, I agreed with what he was saying— you, and I don't mean this as an insult at all, but I don't know if you know what's right or wrong with a lot of things. Jake: I don't even—I don't see a problem with it at all, like—I—just cos' my fans are younger does that mean I'm manipulating them? Like— Nerd: I appreciate that Shane pushed back on that and said, "That is wrong." and "I don't think you know right from wrong." But he should have gone one step further and called bullshit. In all the thousands of hours that you've spent shilling products in your vlogs and music videos and social media posts, not once did you realise that you were manipulating kids? Did you expect us to believe that lie? It's insulting. Jake: Alright Ben, we need to sell some merch. Y'know? You're cute—so you'll buy the merch if you wear it. We need you to put this on and go in front of the camera, okay? Nerd: Jake picked a few convenient points to concede on. You shouldn't have lit your backyard on fire. Okay, maybe that was crazy. You shouldn't have insulted teachers. yeaaahhh, like- Shane (in the background): and that's the truth about it, like-
Jake: yeaahhh- Nerd: But then the moment that you're challenged on something that could actually impact your income, you dismiss it completely. Jake: Real trying to say that I'm just doing it to- manipulate and try to make money off of kids, like- shut the fuck up. I think that—I honestly think that's fucking stupid, that people think that's manipulative. For people that say that I'm like trying to manipulate younger kids, it's like... it's ridiculous. Nerd: The core tenet of Jake's empire is exploiting children with aggressive advertising. Acknowledging that could hurt his wallet, though, so he called that ridiculous. If children aren't asking their parents to buy your merch, then who are they asking? and why is it selling so well? ♪ Go tell your Momma ♪ ♪ She gotta buy it all ♪ This was a really poor response, because it left only 2 possibilities: 1. You don't understand how advertising works, which would make you really dumb, and you're not. Or 2, you do understand how advertising works, and you're lying. You're lying. The point you made about commercial breaks in SpongeBob Squarepants forced Shane Dawson to explain to you the power of influencer marketing. Jake: Wasn't there, like, commercials in between SpongeBob? Shane: Yeah, but it's not SpongeBob. You're the one that the kid trusts, and loves and looks up to you and wants to be- Nerd: But you don't act so dumb when you're talking to businessmen, do you? Jake: I kind of like saw the value in influencers, and like how much power we had in like— I realise, with this much power, why don't I create and own the pie, um- instead or promoting someone else's pie. Nerd: Those clips from your fundraising days are several years old, which means that you've understood influencer marketing for several years now. And—before most people did. Jake: Today I'm gonna be talking about- how to grow your business using influencers. Now, a lot of influencers don't necessarily understand the equity and the value of advisory shares in the long run. Nerd: It's hilarious to anyone who knows you well, that you, of all people, needed the concept of social influencers explained to you now, by Shane Dawson. Aren't you the guy who owns several businesses, whose purpose is to connect brand messaging to young audiences, using social influencers? Alright, have it your way Jake. Bend over. We took Jake Paul's business email and we searched for domains he's registered. Jake's ambiguous mouth-breathing responses to Shane made it... kind of hard to understand what he's really up to. For instance, when Shane asked him what Team 10 is, he said, "Uhh...It's.... It's super confusing." "Yeah, it's like super confusing." Jake: I- Yeah, it's—it's—it's confusing, like I don't even- I don't even know what it is. Uh... it's like super confusing. Erika: It is super confusing. Jake: But, uhm... Nerd: Luckily for us, his websites explain it. If you go down this list, you'll see Jake squatting on domains for some of the influencers he signed, and many of those are undeveloped. But then you get to Jake's marketing companies. The ones making brand deals for Team 10 members. These sites make it perfectly clear what Team 10 is actually about. The Team X website, which is written in Chinese, offers Chinese brands the opportunity to- capitalize on the power of American social influencers. When China wants access to the minds of America's youth, Jake Paul is offering an entry point for that. Team X promises to: Pair a Chinese brand with a social influencer, the influencer makes the sales, and the brand gets a large return on investment. TeamDOM, the parent company of Team 10, in Jake's own words, what does that one do? Jake: Uhh... You can think of it as a modern day media conglomerate- uhh... where we use social media and content marketing to drive products, talent, make viral videos, and uh... we work with brands, and develop products, and that sorta stuff. Yeah. Nerd: Gary V, who runs an advertising firm, was one of your early investors. How did you land that? "Gary understood our power." Power to do what? Advertise to kids. Jake: -just bothers me that like, people would even- try to make that connection. Like I'm trying to manipulate an 8-year-old kid to- buy my shit. Nerd: But you make that connection. Jake: You're selling a product, you need to create content around your product. You can create content around whatever product it is that you have, whether it's an app, whether it's a T-shirt line— Nerd: Jake Paul lesser-known channel, Jake Paul Biz, is a treasure trove of him explaining these very concepts. Jake: When we sell our merch, we create content around it, that's what selling it. We're making jokes about it, we're talking about it, we're taking pictures in it— To me, like that's what the merchandise is about, like—in a way is like—is being a part of that community, and like, wearing something that like actually means something, and like, reminds you of something or reminds you of being positive or reminds you of being happy— —bunch of people, like laughing and having fun with it. That makes people want to buy your product. Content products are the same thing nowadays— —a big part of my content is like, to make... someone's day— Nerd: I don't see anything on these websites about making a child's day. These websites are about how your child fans drive sales. Jake: The power of a team is so big it's unreal. Imagine taking Kanye West, Drake, LeBron James, Rihanna, Kylie Jenner, and having them all promote something. That would be insane. But we, as social media influencers, everyone that comes in this house, everyone on the team, we are those people to our fans. So when we get put together, these people move. You just have to know how to make them move. And no one's doing it. Nerd: Jake. It may benefit you from time to time to play the idiot. Which you clearly do. But we're not fooled by it. How honest you are about your goals depends on who you think is listening. When you think your fans are listening, you say, "my goal is to make your day." If you're talking to businesses, you say your goal is to build an audience, and then monetize it. And since that's what you do, it's silly to deny it. The domains that Jake bought probably include some defensive registrations, but, it reads more like a list of goals. Selling Team 10 beauty products, Team 10 travel, Team 10 lifestyle, Team 10 art. I don't see any Team 10 positivity, or Team 10 happiness domains. For Jake to say he doesn't think kids will believe what he's saying, as an influencer, it's a flat-out lie. "Influence" is in the name "influencer", a term that Jake uses all over his websites to describe himself. Jake: It's ridiculous. Nerd: Claiming that our concerns were ridiculous, implies that his own business model is ridiculous. Jake Paul's social media school, Edfluence, teaches young people how to be influencers. And the sales pitch for Edfluence is a textbook hard sell. Jake addresses kids, he's selling it to kids— Jake: If you're a kid like I was— and he packs dozens of manipulative sales tactics into the pitch video. He steps out of a gold McLaren, and then shows off his mansion. He tells kids to "imagine how the course will improve their life". Jake: Just sit there and imagine if you had a fraction of the followers and money that we've learned and made and created. Would that change your life? Nerd: He plays on FOMO, or Fear Of Missing Out. Jake: There are millions of Jake Paulers watching this right now, and if you wait on this, you'll probably miss your shot at [Team] 1000 [what he calls Edfluence members]. Nerd: If you want to see Jake at his most brazenly manipulative, watch his pitch video for Edfluence in its entirety: Jake: If you can't sacrifice some Starbucks— for the next few weeks, and— maybe that just means this life isn't for you. So, if you can't follow the roadmap then there's just no chance you'll make it as a social media influencer. I could charge hundreds or even thousands of dollars for this program and the information that's in it and tons of you would still get in. But, I want to help as many people as possible, so I'm making it super easy and affordable. You can choose— yes, choose— to use the phone in your hand to possibly become the next big influencer. Nerd: Perhaps now's a good time to hear from the snake who invented manipulation. Ask the Devil. The Devil: Jake, I've gotta admit, I think it was pretty funny when you got to Shane's house with the cake pop. Was that for us? Jake: We got Starbucks, yeah. Erika: Yeah mine's getting caught in my teeth. The Devil: Did you want us to think you stopped at the Starbucks, or you just stole it from another kid? Jake: You gonna eat this whole thing? Most likely not! Mmm, know what I mean? The Devil: Tha- that was for us, right? You were set- was that for us? You know in prison, the people that take advantage of kids get it the worst. You think hell is any different? I promise you, it isn't. Someday, someday Jake. You and me! The premise of our video was not to determine whether or not Jake Paul is a bad person. He is. The point was, does he do bad things? We're not suggesting that he doesn't have emotions, or that he's incapable of empathy, or that he's unable to realize that he could be better. "Is he, or is he not a sociopath?" sets a pretty low bar for him to have the clear in order to be redeemed. In fact, it could be argued that he has less of an excuse because he's not a sociopath. Now, in Shane's video, he showed people some of the things that have happened to you. You grew up in Ohio, whatever that means, your dad's a jerk, your brother slept with your girl—, blah blah blah— who cares?! Oh, boohoo— None of that makes a difference. You're still doing bad things. None of that is an excuse for the awful life that you lead, the example you set, for millions of children. Maybe you can get tears out of Shane, you're not getting tears from me, buddy! You're gonna let your dad be your excuse your whole life? I know a little bit about that. I- I know a little bit about blaming your dad for your problems, but at the end of the day, your actions are your actions, baby. Free will, that's how it works. Your mom sucked, your dad sucks, your brother sucks, your girlfriends suck, your friends suck. Boohoo, your life was hard. You know who else's life was hard? People that don't have millions of dollars in the bank. What you have is greed. Your whole life is built around it, greed and vanity. And you're gonna end up with me someday. And getting tears out of Shane might be easy. It ain't gonna be easy with me, and none of that is gonna matter. Look dude, there's no—there's no excuse. There's just—there's no excuse. Look, we don't want to see Jake Paul fail. So we'd like to see him make some adjustments. Here are some suggestions. First, you need to decide, once and for all, are you making children's content, or are you making content for adults? Now that you're an adult, you wanna make adult content- Fine. But if you wanna make children's content, you need to stick to the baseline standard that society has deemed appropriate. Not filming your girlfriend in a thong, climbing a ladder from below. And no parents will end up having to explain to their children what a labia is. Number 2: advertise less. The more YouTube replaces conventional television, the more likely - inevitable - it becomes that some ambitious regulator is gonna come along, see what you're doing, and crack down on everybody. So maybe you and your clan can restrain your greed, now that Shane has been kind enough to officially inform you what you're doing is wrong. Number 3: if you want to make an ad, make it clear it's an ad, so that the dumb kids watching can tell the difference. You need an example? You want an example of what that looks like? We're gonna give you one. We're gonna tell you about Squarespace now. Nerd: As you saw in our Jake Paul video, the devil went back in time and convinced two of YouTube's biggest stars to promote our merch when they were just kids. And so now, I need a website. Squarespace has an all-in-one platform, which means I can do everything from registering the domain to building the site. The purpose of my site is going to be selling T-shirts. So I type that in, and now I'm shown some templates that are suitable for fashion and which I can customize to make my online store. If you follow the link below, squarespace.com/nerdcity, you'll get 10% off your 1st purchase. Time travel and demonic possession is not something that everyone can do, but building a website is. Make your dreams a reality with Squarespace. Okay, ad over. But while we're talking about domains, I wanna talk about Greg Paul's domains. He's registered some strange ones. In January, he registered parentsagainstpauls (dot) info. What do you think he's up to with that? Some kind of fake parent group that he controls? Alex Jones: It's got "inside job" written all over. Nerd: Also, a couple of Zoosh-related ones: zooshgames (dot) us, and playzoosh (dot) us Stop with the Zoosh! That's ours. ♪ Zoosh! ♪ But here's the crown jewel: nocondomused (dot) org In light of recent events, you may think I'm making that up, or that it's a joke. It's real. Keemstar: Yesterday, a Greg Paul sex tape was released! Nerd: I don't know how long his email address had been compromised, but, he registered nocondomused (dot) org in January. Was he planning to sell a home movie? Jake: Man, I want to see the bed that I was made on! Nerd: Jake, do you remember how you wanted to see the bed that you were made on? Keemstar: Bed board matches Greg Paul's actual bed board! Jake: Is this the bed that I was made on? Nerd: Maybe Greg has a video of it. Maybe you could react to it. Jake: Yeah... yeah... Uhm... Shut the fuck up. [Music: Pop Up! - Paradise City]
The thing where he took the candy from the baby . . . that was fucked up. Forget about the adult content being served to teens. They can get porn. Eating a baby's candy just to make it cry is fucked.
A lot of people are saying that talking about Jake Paul is only giving him more exposure but this video actually touches on something more serious. This idea of influencer marketing and specifically targeting children. I do think if videos on youtube are specifically promoting products then it should be clear to the viewer. But I can't really see youtube doing that. The platform has gotten so big it almost feels out of control at times.
I have so little awareness of any of the nuances of all this..
But if you wanna look like a complete fucking dickbag it's pretty easy when you try to shrug off your literal business empire's point as "make people feel happy about wearing stuff" while being paired up with yourself explaining, in shallow marketing bullshit words, how the content exists to create the perception of that happiness in order to move merch.
It's a shame shitty people can excel so easily.
Jake is the type of human with no scruples.... People like him existed since forever and many are still here right now. It's easy for him to reach to the young and dumb and get rich in this age because of the internetz.... And of course he lies, why wouldn't he ? Does anybody think the fans of his and parents of the fans will watch this video and say ''hmm wow we are really stupid '' ..nahhh... BUY THAT MERCH!!!
I'm 19 years old and during Thanksgiving I had a cousin who is 12 visit, and what tilted me the most was he came up to me and said "you're already 19 and don't have a Lamborghini." And fucking laughed at me. Jake paul is a piece of shit, he warps the minds of little kids, I didn't think much of it untill that interaction with my cousin where I noticed he had to be stopped.
It's shorthanded to just sum this up to YouTube drama.
Although the center of controversy is YouTube (and Jake Paul), we're talking about an enormous media icon using his influence to shape the minds of children in a way that is already regulated for established reasons.
Then the issue of concern becomes the generation that's molded by Jake Paul and what sort of practices he encourages. I think artists with influence are a good thing - by all means, but his methods are extremely predatory and directed towards children.
Its a fucking shame that NerdCity has only 400k subscribers. Some of the most well-researched, cleanly-edited and entertaining content on the internet. Him and CaptainDisillusion need more recognition.
I'd be interested to hear Shanes response.
my kids try hard, but I refuse to let them watch this loser.
This video taught me more in 17 minutes than Shane’s 8, 1 Hour docu series. I like Shane but I feel like he got paid to make Jake likable.