So here’s a taste of what I had in mind as a “personal” entry. None of that “I went to get ice cream today and it was gewd”, not that I’m against it but it’s not for me. You can maybe see why I don’t do them often. I have many ideas, but they are long. This particular entry ended up being about 6 pages double spaced

Being as Black Friday is coming up and people are getting ready for the deals, I figure now would be an appropriate time to have a discussion about the whole controversy about sponsored or paid reviews on Youtube, contests, and Black Friday shopping.

As some of you may know, as of December 1, the FTC requires that [American] bloggers must disclose payments or items received for free when doing a review or risk a fine. I assume this also extends to video bloggers aka “Youtube Gurus”. Some people who have raised the point that major publications, like magazines, do not have to follow the new regulation, which is unfair. It should apply to everyone. I have read that with publications, the products they review are sent back, so no one keeps anything whereas bloggers usually keep the products they receive so there’s personal interest involved. It sounds reasonable now.

Personally, this doesn’t really affect me. I’ve only been offered free products like… twice and have never been paid or given commission to endorse a product. I’m just not commercial and if I were a company, I probably wouldn’t bother giving anything to me either when there are obviously plenty of more people who seem eager out there. Some people are willing to give positive reviews, even if they don’t like the product, in order to maintain a good relationship with a company. I already own more than enough makeup so I have no benefit to do that. If I kiss ass to a company that has crappy products, I’ll just end up being sent more crap, which will just end up cluttering my limited living space. If quality brands like MUFE, MAC, NARS, Illamasqua, Urban Decay, and Too Faced want to send me products, go right on ahead! Now those are free products I wouldn’t mind getting, seeing as I already spend money on them anyway.

If I were given free products though, I’d have no problem putting it out there that I didn’t pay for it. If I liked the product, I’d talk about it. If I don’t, then I wouldn’t speak of it. Here’s how I see it, if you get invited over for dinner and and the food sucks, you probably wouldn’t confront the cook and say it. It’s kind of the same deal here. A company is giving you these products in hopes that you will talk about it to gain exposure. It would be pretty messed up if you in turn tell everyone how horrible it is, although it wouldn’t be a bad idea to just tell the company in private why you didn’t like their product. If they are a professional company, they will thank you for the feedback. If they get nasty, well, then that’s not a company you want to refer people to anyway.

In general I try to stray away from negative video reviews even if I paid for the product. The exception is if the product is so awful that I feel the world must know how bad it is. Negative reviews just bring out the crazies who get super offended and sometimes downright nasty if you dislike something that they use. I don’t really get it though. I’m not going to get butt hurt and name call if someone dislikes Stila Smudgepots or Cargo blushes…

I’ve seen a lot of people out there voicing their opinion over the fact that people on Youtube are sponsored or being paid for their reviews which therefore produces biased opinions. Some will say that regardless, their reviews are unbiased, but come on now, you can’t control your unconscious. If you could, then it wouldn’t be unconscious now would it? Getting a product for free or being paid to talk about it is going to make you biased, whether you are fully aware of it or not. Now I don’t have anything against such reviews. I just think people should disclose that it was given to them, etc. (as will be required) to make viewers or readers aware and take whatever they want from it.

I find it annoying when someone who has been given a free product overly praises it. “OMG it’s sooooo good and the colour is soooo awesome”. LOL, let’s be real here. It’s a black eyeshadow, how awesome can the colour be? Also, people who will hint that they purchased certain items when they were obviously gratis. Why go out to hide it? But what bothers me more is when the product wasn’t even given a fair chance yet it’s still “Sooo awesome”. There are certain items where you know you love it or it’s not going to work out by using it just once, but there are others that need more than a day for you to form an opinion about it. I think it’s careless and unfair to recommend a product and praise how great it is when it was hardly even used.

I’m a person who’s big on integrity. Youtube is not my profession. It’s just something I do for fun on my off time so I’m not going to sell myself out for some free lip gloss. I’m not selling myself that low. If someone offered to buy me a home or pay for my tuition I’d definitely consider… (Don’t lie, you would too!) There are people who genuinely trust my input so I’m not going to intentionally take advantage of that trust.

“Okay, so you’re trying to say you’re not a sell out but you are a Youtube partner…” I’m going to be making my videos regardless so why not make a little extra money while doing it? Some people say “it’s all about the money” but in my case, it’s not. I can’t speak for others but with the amount of views I get, I’m better off working a minimum wage job for one day out of the month if money is the motive here. I’m not going to cheat my views. I’m not going to ask you to rate, comment, and subscribe. If you like it, cool, if you don’t, you could try looking at something else.

NOW, with all that being said, the problem isn’t just with people who write reviews or post videos on the internet. Readers and viewers are in it too. I have witnessed many people who brown nose those who throw contests just for the sake of free shit. People who actually don’t like you but will fake it so they can get something from you, people who will subscribe for a contest only to unsubscribe later because they didn’t like your videos to begin with, people who say how awesome you are then turn around saying how annoying you are when they don’t win anything. It’s interesting how a contest video gets the most hits, comments, and 5 star ratings, when another video from the same user, which is actually a lot more informative and takes more effort to make, gets a lot less attention. Hm…

There was this contest awhile ago where you had to make a video. There were two prizes. Everyone was telling this Youtube user how great of a person she was then when it came time to announce the winners, she was late. Not much time was given until the hate comments started to flood in. People were talking smack about her looks, her accent, etc. and I’m pretty sure these were thoughts that were already in people’s minds but when she was giving out free makeup, no one said anything… Instead of wondering if she was okay, people were just concerned about the prizes. This user had many videos made prior to the contest which were very helpful and informative. I personally don’t believe that she would do all that just so she can later intentionally screw people over with a contest. Of course all the time and effort spent on those videos didn’t matter anymore to people.

People were actually saying things like “She better have had an STD or something if it’s taking her this long”. SERIOUSLY? I couldn’t believe it. All over makeup… Money and free stuff really brings out the ugly in people. The amazing part was that someone who entered actually made another account just so they can talk trash and not have it affect their entry. Really? If you’re expressing extreme hate towards this person, you’d still smile and hand out your hand if they gave you something huh? I’d bet you’d thank her and overly express your “gratitude” also…

I made a video entry myself and I was more concerned about what was going on with her than the contest. It only took 10 minutes of my time and I didn’t care about the prizes anymore. It’s just makeup, move on. In the end she closed her account and I never heard from her again. I probably would have done the same thing. Why go through giving items to people who wished you had an STD, thought you were ugly, and had a bad accent all along? This is why in my past giveaways, I’ve made sure to state that I don’t have a specific time that I announce winners. It will get done eventually on my own time so I’m not pressured. If that’s not okay, don’t enter. I think that’s fair enough. Unfortunately there’s no sure way to separate the greedy people from the supportive ones.

And now we move along to Black Friday. Lots of sales, people camping out in the cold, traffic, large crowds, not spending quality time with family, pushing, shoving, trampling others to death, and fighting. All for what? I would understand more if people where fighting each other gladiator style over food if there’s a huge famine. It’s one thing to want to save money on things like rent/mortgage and bills, but for a $20 DVD player or $5 off an iPod? No thanks. I’ll save myself the anxiety. I don’t do well with large uncontrolled crowds and just thinking about it is making me nauseous. Any shopping I need to do for the holidays will be done online. As for myself, I only want one item, which is a coat from Guess. I’ve been waiting for that to go on sale. That’s it. I don’t need anything else. I’ve recently learned to only buy things that I love and not just a bunch of random items just because they were cheap. You buy one $10 shirt that was okay and eventually you end up with $100 worth of shirts that you don’t love when you could have gotten that one $50 blouse that you’ve been drooling over for months and you know you will wear it all the time.

So what I’m trying to get at is that I don’t believe people should be giving up their morality and integrity for the sake of getting free makeup, a good deal on a furby, etc. because in the end, all those are inessential items. Almost everyone has a vice and for many people, it’s materialism. I don’t think it’s wrong as long as it’s not all one’s life is revolved around and the person is aware of it. Being ignorant of the fact is dangerous because what will happen when these tangible items are gone? There has to be something else of value or life will have no meaning left. If you can get something, good for you, but don’t stab someone over it because in the end, you don’t NEED it.