Author: G. Li, Megaphone Editor-in-chief

This is a continuation of Part 1 of this series.

Getting to the more serious allegations, Dawson brings up examples of what he claims to be “illegal lotteries”. While we will not be diving into the exact legalities of these lotteries, we will be discussing some of the ethics behind them. 

In one of MrBeast’s livestreams, “If You Buy this Shirt, I’ll Sign It”, MrBeast and his crew members are signing shirts, and packing money with some of the orders. A huge issue with this giveaway is that it is not mentioned that you do not have to buy a sweatshirt to win. In the United States, it is a law that no purchase should be necessary to enter a privately organized  lottery. It is the responsibility of the company to give this information to customers — however this is not mentioned on the website they made for the giveaway nor in the livestream they conducted for the giveaway. Additionally, throughout the video, MrBeast continuously repeats phrases such as “We’re not making any money because we’re giving away too much money!” despite it being evident that they are making a great profit, selling shirts and hoodies for about 40 dollars a piece. While this type of lie is not by any means illegal, it definitely rubs off the wrong way and provides some insight into the image that MrBeast wants his viewers to believe. 

A livestream of a similar nature, “If You Buy This Shirt, You Could Win $1,000,000!”, has many similar issues as the previously mentioned lottery. On many online forums, people recount issues such as the team only signing large T-shirts and saying a shirt will get money at a specific time only for people who bought the shirt at that time to not get money. Although some of these issues could be chalked up to a time discrepancy, one claim that cannot be ignored is the fact that Tyler, a MrBeast crew member who was signing shirts, forged MrBeast’s signature (MB), on a shirt. By his guilty look, it was evident that Tyler did not mean to sign MrBeast’s signature so obviously in front of the camera.  The fact that another MrBeast member forged MrBeast’s signature is very disingenuous, as the people buying these shirts are paying a lot of money just to get a MrBeast signature. If this signature isn’t even real, then what MrBeast is running is basically a scam. 

Image from Dogpack404’s “I Worked For MrBeast, He’s a Fraud”, shows Tyler forging MrBeast’s signature on a shirt

Finally, we will discuss the claims brought up by DogPack404 about MrBeast’s running of his chocolate brand, Feastables. To kick this section off, let’s talk about the Feastables review conducted by @keith_lee125 on TikTok with MrBeast. Keith gave his honest review, that MrBeast’s chocolates were not very good. While sitting next to Keith, MrBeast continuously tried making excuses for reasons why Keith may not have liked the chocolate, frantically saying things like, “You don’t like crunch bars?” (Keith then states that he likes crunch bars), “maybe these are defective”, “OH MY GOD this tastes good to me”, “I rate this a 10/10, I give this an 11/10”. MrBeast’s reactions come off as very tight-strung, overall making the video very hard to watch. 

Building off of this chocolate review, it was widely agreed upon that MrBeast’s chocolate did not taste good. In a video by The Food Theorists, “Food Theory: What MrBeast Isn’t Telling You About Feastables…”,  it’s revealed that with a (truly) blind taste test, Feastables consistently got an average of a 3rd place ranking among four other chocolate bars, despite MrBeast advertising the bars as “The World’s Best Chocolate Bars” Originally, Feastables was a brand built on being “more nutritional” than other chocolate bars. However, after a recent formula change, MrBeast’s chocolate bars have become more unhealthy (higher sugar content) than even Hershey’s, a brand that MrBeast has continuously diminished to promote his own chocolate for being unhealthy and tasting bad. 

Additionally, MrBeast has been using his chocolate bars to promote gambling. With a purchase of one of his chocolate bars, consumers can scan a QR code leading them to a site modeled after a gambling game. By encouraging his followers, mainly young children, to buy his chocolate, he is not only promoting gambling culture to young, impressionable children, but is also potentially harming them nutritionally. These children will be incentivized to buy more chocolate because they believe it will give them a chance to win money, but especially with the chocolate’s recent formula change, buying an excess of this chocolate could potentially be detrimental to the health of these children and get them addicted to sugary foods, a growing problem in America. It is quite ironic that MrBeast promotes his chocolate as healthy when in reality his practices with Feastables promote unhealthy consumption of his unhealthy chocolates. Also, a note I’d like to mention is that for the sweepstakes involved with Feastables, the no purchase necessary description is incredibly well hidden, and has instructions that are so specific with materials that are so uncommon that it is probably cheaper to just by a Feastables bar, which indicates a clear intention to deceive his viewers and fans. 

Nutrition Facts for Hershey’s (left) and Feastables (right) – Hershey’s has 25% Added Sugars while Feastables has 26% Added Sugars

MrBeast has also asked his followers, mainly children, to clean up and organize his Feastable displays at Walmart for a chance to win a $5000 drawing. In doing this, he is taking advantage of the loyal audience he has created to sell more chocolate bars and make more money.