Here's the thing about technology, when your toddler has an ipad, they will invariably find and open YouTube, and discover the fascinating world of watching videos instead of tv. Clicking on a 4 to 10 minute video is infinitely more interesting than even their favorite episode of Daniel Craig- i mean, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, especially when they can hit a thumbs up button after, and YouTube then suggests other videos that they may like and lets be real, 4 to 10 minutes aligns better with a young child’s attention span than a 30 minute tv show.
By the time my kid was 6 years old, he loved watching guys on YouTube who would for example, fill an empty swimming pool with shaving cream and then skate board into it, just to see what would happen. Perfectly entertaining, and obviously sponsored by Gillette, who probably happily supplied the 200 cans of shaving cream to fill the pool, and maybe even helped scout the empty pool, and most likely paid the kids for the video since they had 300,000 subscribers and thus a young, specific audience.
Or here's another one: some other youtuber pulls up to a busy street corner in a small city (disclaimer here: I live in the New York City, the most populous one in the United States, NYC population so by comparison any other city in this country is "small" ) with a truck full of the latest Playstations (extremely popular gaming consoles to play video games) and starts GIVING THEM AWAY to passersby and filming their reactions. Free playstations and being on YouTube? Surely every single kid in America wanted to be in that one! This guy probably gained another 20,000 subscribers from that video alone. Then there was the one where the same guy walks into a Target somewhere in the South, and announces, "Everyone fill your carts with whatever you want, it's all paid for by me!".
(Here’s me & my kid, being real New Yorkers at a real Yankees game)
There were people in that store who needed socks, food, and groceries for their families that were so grateful for this generosity, even if it meant being filmed. Now this caught my eye, someone genuinely doing good and helping people on YouTube? Who was this?
"Mr, Beast!" my son explained, "he is my favorite!". He became my favorite too, because he leveraged his fame and fortune to help people. By the time my kid was 8 and 9 years old, this YouTuber was hawking "merch" which if you are over the age of 36, and aren't familiar with this word, means merchandise, that is, tee-shirts, hoodies, and baseball caps. The designs were really cool (different logos and colors of the name MrBeast) and I supported the cause. I was happy my kid proudly wore the merch of a do-gooder. Each new design was more clever than the last and some of the merch would commemorate a new milestone of "Subs"- which means YouTube subscribers (that is, how many people receive a notification and watch when a new video was released). We have tees that say “Beast 1 Million"- celebrating when he reached his first 1M subs, and another that says "Beast 50Mil" for his 50 millionth sub. Can you imagine? These numbers seemed exhorbitant and impossible to me! Forget the Nielsen ratings of the 1980's that i grew up with, how could YouTube now surpass network televison? You can easily see why corporations became keen on sponsoring these videos in exchange for, oh how about some product placement, and maybe a mention of two of said product?
There was this one video where this MrBeast kid was talking about his charity called Team Seas where he pledged to raise 30 million dollars in order to clean 30 million pounds of trash from beaches and oceans. The fund actually ended up raising 33.9 million US Dollars, and the cleanups began in January 2022. Each dollar rasied went to clean up 1 pound of garbage, through partners Ocean Conservancy and The Ocean Cleanup (check it out here for details).
Anyway when my son showed me this video, where they clean up 50,000 pounds of trash from 2 beaches, I was so thrilled that someone cared and was DOING SOMETHING about the littered beaches and oceans, that I bought him both the short-sleeved and the long-sleeved tees.
In February 2022 I received a strange call from an area code i didn't recognize but answered anyway. “Hellllooooo?” I said. Why was i being so silly when it was going to be a robocall anyway?
"Is this Rosie Creamer?" said the young woman on the line. Oh wow, someone who knows my name is calling. "Yesssss" i replied, again in a silly, dramatic tone, curious who wanted to speak to me.
"This is Jenny from MrBeast YouTube casting. Because you bought a Team Seas tee shirt we are inviting you to audition for our next video, are you interested?" What? Oh so they ask people who buy merch to be in the videos! I had certainly spent enough money and would love to be in one of these things. "Of course!" I told her. "Great, we will email the zoom invite within the next few days" she said. Remember this was 2022, and we weren't out of the woods yet with the Pandemic, so auditions were not in person.
When I told my husband and son at dinner that night that I got invited to audition for a MrBeast video, they could not believe it. My son said that I should brush up on my knowledge of MrBeast in case they asked me what I knew about him to prove that I indeed did watch his videos, which I only did when my son wanted me to see a particularly interesting one. When i received the zoom invitation, the audition would be at 4pm in a few days. My boy would be home from school at that time, so we agreed that he should be sitting next to me, off-camera, to help me in case they asked a question that I could not answer.
The zoom audition was a riot. There were 12 of us on the call with one moderator. First we each introduced ourslves and said where we lived. Then we were asked, if you were going to a desert island and could only bring 1 item, what would it be? Most people said things like sunscreen, water, or a tent. Now, I like to be outrageous and figured they would appreciate it, so i said, "My Alani Nu Energy Drinks", which made everyone laugh. Sure enough the next day, i got a call from North Carolina, the same area code as the first one, where MrBeast is located.
"Is this Rosie Creamer?" a different young woman said. "Why Yes" I replied, in a goofy tone. "This is Ashley from MrBeast YouTube casting, and congratulations, you have been selected to be in our next video!". "OhmyGOSH, amazing! wow so are you guys coming to New York to film?" I replied. I don't know why I assumed that, maybe because all New Yorkers think that the world revolves around us? Or maybe i got picked because they wanted locals for a NYC video? "No...." Ashley said, "We actually can't tell you where we will be filming because its a surprise, but we will be going to a tropical location. Can you be available mid-April for 4-5 days to film on location?" "Oh, um, yeah" I said. International travel to exotic locations? This was getting better by the minute!
"The video will be to celebrate MrBeast's 100 millionth subscriber", she explained. The intrigue was just building and building. I wondered what he might be giving away in this one- and would I be winner?
Love all this!