It’s been a rough year for Marques Brownlee. You might remember that just a couple of months back the youtuber, who goes by the handle @MKBHD, dropped his own app – Panels. That launch, uh, didn’t go too well. Unfortunately, he’s found himself in a little bit of hot water again for his most recent video – How my video gear is changing! – for two pretty significant reasons.
Sponsored or written by?
Marques is facing a lot of criticism over the sponsorship of this video, and while some of it is fair, some of it isn’t. I think it’s important to note before digging in to any of the rest of the video that it is made really clear that you’re about to watch sponsored content. At only three seconds into the video the words “sponsored by DJI” appear on the screen along with a voiceover saying the same.
Now, onto the video content itself. Marques starts by talking about how youtube viewers are more drawn to “lower production value” videos (he is of course well known for his extremely high production quality value) and states he wants to get back into filming more “experiences”. He talks a little about filming on smartphones but not enjoying putting them at risk before bringing up action cams and saying “it’s been 10 years” since he started dealing with them, and wonders aloud about how they are now – before whipping out a DJI Osmo Action Camera 5 Pro.
The video then continues on with Marques showcasing the Osmo in virtually every shot for the rest of the nearly 10 minute video, talking up many of its selling points and ultimately drawing no comparison to various competitor options and failing to highlight any possible negatives of the device. Seriously, not a single negative.
Now you might think, hey, it’s a sponsored video – why would he be negative? Well really, there’s the problem. Brownlee has gained a reputation over time as a trusted voice in the technology space – someone who tells it as it is – the good, the bad and the ugly (cough, humane AI pin, cough) – which makes it particularly galling to see this video presented almost as though it’s a review when it just isn’t. Throughout the video he uses phrases like “one of the best”, which again makes it appear as though he’s drawing a comparison – but to what? He never does say, because again, this isn’t a review. Instead, it feels as though it’s a bunch of paid sponsor talking points written by someone else and presented by Marques as an objective point of view. While most viewers are able to understand the fact that this is not an unbiased opinion, the fact remains that people trust Marques, so him spending 10 minutes singing a products praises is likely to influence people somewhat.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, in the process of making the video he somehow managed to include footage of himself potentially breaking the law…
Driving 96 in a 35
The video, as originally presented, features a short segment showing Brownlee driving a Lamborghini on what appears to be a suburban street. The car revs loudly and appears to accelerate rapidly in the short clip. While the speedometer in the video is initially visible, it is blurred once the car hits approximately 60 mph – however whoever edited the video forgot to blur the passenger side speedo (which I didn’t know until now was even a thing). Unfortunately for the editing team, blurring something like that out typically makes people pay more attention to it, not less…
Now, blink and you’ll miss it (I mean, clearly he did), but visible early on in the short clip is a “Slow, Children Crossing” sign which is then immediately followed by a “Speed Limit 35” sign. Marques passes these signs at around 50 mph.
Having passed these signs, Marques continues to accelerate through the entire short clip, hitting a top speed of 96 mph while driving in the speed restricted zone. To put that into perspective for readers from say, Canada, that means he was driving at 155 km/h in a 55 km/h limit.
Now you may have noticed that I referred to the clip as it was originally presented – that’s because shortly after the video was published and comments started pouring in regarding the driving, someone on Marques’ team deleted this portion of the video entirely. The screenshots above had to be obtained from an archived copy of the original video – available here with the driving portion at around 7:40.
Seeing an influential youtube flaunting speed limits is extremely concerning given the amount of younger viewers (including my own son) who watch his content. It goes without saying that speed kills – to be going nearly triple the speed limit is simply putting yourself and other road users at inexcusable risk.
Response
Marques original response to the fallout from this video was a short comment added to his original video reading: “Cut out the unnecessary driving clip that obviously added nothing to the video. I hear all your feedback on sponsored videos too” (emphasis added). Needless to say, commenters weren’t thrilled with this response to being accused of speeding and were quick to respond. One youtube user (@Hugal.) said “You know what you did and instead of admitting that you did something wrong you cut it and said it added nothing to the video you are a big youtuber so please act like one and admit what you did”.
A few hours later, Marques did just that, posting a statement to his X page where he apologized for what he had done and promising not to do anything like it again:
Last video I did something pretty stupid. You might've already seen it, but maybe not so I'll address it here. There was a clip with the action cam of me test driving a car and going way to fast. Absolutely inexcusable and dangerous.
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) November 12, 2024
I've since cut it out of the video with…
While the apology is noble, this is the second major (and avoidable) controversy that Marques has found himself in this year and I find myself wondering if perhaps it’s time for him to invest in either a PR manager or at least some PR training in order to more effectively respond to criticisms moving forward. Oh, and when it comes to filming yourself breaking the law? Maybe don’t do that.
For now, I continue to wish Marques well and truly hope he is learning some tough lessons before he makes a mistake that he isn’t as easy to fix.
All images in this post are screenshots from MKBHD’s video “How my camera gear is changing!” or an archived copy of the original, unedited video. Copyright remains MKBHD’s and these screenshots are used only on the principle of “fair use” for discussion purposes.
