‘If you press this, I’ll pay’: MrBeast, YouTube, and the mobilisation of the audience commodity in the name of charity

Abstract

This paper examines a new form of philanthropic fundraising as pioneered by the YouTuber MrBeast. We argue that MrBeast, by harnessing the advertising revenue sharing model of YouTube’s Partner Program, has created an innovative model of philanthropic giving funded by mobilising what Marxist communication theorists refer to as the ‘audience’ or ‘prosumer commodity’. Through this method, MrBeast has been able to use the algorithmically managed, revenue sharing model of YouTube, and the spectacle of philanthropy, to draw in ever larger audiences and thus create large amounts of advertising and sponsorship revenue to fund philanthropic activities. This revenue in turn funds even larger philanthropic acts in subsequent videos, drawing more audiences and revenue. Unlike previous media-based fundraising, which would ask audience members to contribute their own money or time to a cause, MrBeast positions his audiences as a knowing audience commodity whose viewership funds direct contributions of other people’s money to good causes, merely by watching and being entertained. We assess the implications of this both for current debates around the ‘work’, labour’, and ‘exploitation’ of audience and prosumer commodities, and their monetisation for philanthropic giving.