Rightfully disdained for his callous behavior but still adored by millions of fans, YouTuber Logan Paul clearly inspires some very intense emotions in those who watch his channel. In this thoughtful 19-minute video, video essayist Big Joel takes an objective look at why that is by examining Paul’s evolving YouTube persona and the troubling, damaging path it’s taken.
For another smart critical take on Logan Paul, check out this video by Nathan Zed:
Logan Paul made a video posing near of a suicide victim in Japan's Aokigahara forest. He was widely condemned, seemed chastened, made a soft-focus video about his learning experience, then went back in front of the camera to taser a dead rat and poke a fish. YouTube issued a statement saying Paul's been suspended again from their advertising program, but you get the feeling that, like him, they just aren't learning their lesson.
The BBC:
YouTube has suspended advertising on video blogger Logan Paul's channels owing to his "pattern of behaviour". ...
“After careful consideration, we have decided to temporarily suspend ads on Logan Paul’s YouTube channels,” YouTube said in a statement Friday. “This is not a decision we made lightly; however, we believe he has exhibited a pattern of behavior in his videos that makes his channel not only unsuitable for advertisers, but also potentially damaging to the broader creator community.”
In response to Logan Paul’s recent pattern of behavior, we’ve temporarily suspended ads on his channels.
— YouTube Creators (@YTCreators) February 9, 2018
YouTube is fixated on Brand Suitability as the problem, but that's how you expect YouTube to fail at PR, apologizing to advertisers in the place it's supposed to be apologizing to viewers. The bigger problem is how it's trying to serve Brands in the first place, by financing a dystopian cargo cult of adolescent fameballs in the hope of incubating true talent. The social milieux they've created is a breeding ground for shark-eyed nasties and bug-eyed nazis, and their job depends on not understanding it. Read the rest
YouTuber Logan Paul filmed himself in a fluffy barnstormer hat looking for suicide victims in a Japanese forest and finding one to show to his 16 million viewers. He also pranced around the country making dumb and offensive jokes.
The outrage was such that YouTube booted him from the site's celebrity-tier ad platform, forcing him to issue a soft-focus apology and self-care PSA in which he is seen to have learned and paid for his lesson about why you don't pose in silly hats with suicide victims.
But the apology tour is showing cracks, with new excuses shining through: “the idea was to shock and show the harsh realities of suicide and get people talking about something that I don’t think people are talking about much.”
Read the rest
Logan Paul is continuing his apology tour following the widely criticized video of a dead body he posted on YouTube at the end of 2016. In an interview with Good Morning America today, the 22-year-old vlogger says that he posted Aokigahara forest video with a specific goal: “The idea was to shock and show the harsh realities of suicide and get people talking about something that I don’t think people are talking about much.”
Paul’s video, which he removed from YouTube after swift backlash, featured the vlogger heading into the forest with friends to do another “fun vlog,” he says. They planned to camp for the night and “make an entertaining piece of content in a forest.” Shortly after they entered the forest, he says, roughly 100 feet away from the parking lot, the group encountered the body of a man who appeared to have recently hung himself.
