Chat Roulette and not so subtle advertising on youtube

Chat roulette has been around for a while now and people have used it mainly for – how should I put it – parading their genitalia. Although that seemed to have been useful and enjoyable for some, Merlin (Pianochatimprov) has found a rather different yet still entertaining use for Chat Roulette.

Great idea and, although YouTube seemed to have some issues with the first version, he has been getting tonnes of followers. I wonder which brand will try to enjoy some of that limelight – maybe he could subtely drop in some brand names?

This leads me on to the following video from Michelle Pham – Make-up Guru on YouTube.
She has had an amazing career, starting with basic make-up tutorials and has now become Lancôme’s official youtube endorser. On the one hand you might ask yourself why the hell am I watching these videos – honestly, I find them quite entertaining. I believe this is one of the futures of advertising. She is very honest about who endorses her and about her “flaws” – it makes her human and very likable. This has recently changed though, when she uploaded the video below…

I dont know if you spotted it, but about 40 seconds into the video she is suddenly wearing headphones – and not just any headphones, Beats by Dr. Dre. I have recently been looking for some headphones myself and stumbled across these. They retail at around £250.
So, this appearance surprised me because normally her videos flow and dont have interruptions as such (things changing all of a sudden). Additionally, they are quite expensive, but hey she is Lancôme’s youtube endorser and she gets money from youtube, so fine she could afford them.

I just couldn’t get my head around it – she always shows the labels of all the brand she uses, be it shirts or cosmetics. therefore I felt a bit cheated. So I wrote on her wall. She didn’t like my comment at first, so I wrote another one, which is still up now (crtl + f bunicky to find it). Unfortunately, she didn’t answer. Either way, I feel a bit cheated and this feeling seems to be growing, having read through other peoples replies to the video.
If you are going to be make-up guru on YouTube, or endorse any product on YouTube, i think it is important to have total integrity. The people watching your video are highly sceptical right from the start, so if you disappoint them once, they will keep criticising your videos.

I do not think that the headphones issue is a very big deal, still I thought it was worth mentioning it.

Lennard