It’s been a good few years for Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, a YouTuber who has managed to turn his entertainment empire into a variety of food businesses across the United States. While he started with the MrBeast Burger restaurants, he’s moved into the candy market with the Feastables collection at Walmart. He’s now asking fans to dismantle the opposition’s displays in favor of his own.
In a recent tweet on his official channel, MrBeast brought attention to the fact that some of his displays across the U.S. are getting a bit disheveled after all the demand. He asks that fans help organize any they see in Walmarts, saying he’s working on a team to do this permanently, but he needs volunteers right now. This would’ve been fine, but he doubled down and asked fans to mess up the Hershey’s displays while they were there.
While it seems the tweet has been deleted, sites like Dexerto have taken notice that he asked fans to destroy the opposition’s displays in a follow-up tweet. As of writing, though, there is no tweet from the Mr. Beast account, but someone seems to have taken a screenshot of it. The Serfs on Twitter posted a collection of images of people helping the YouTuber, as well as his Hershey’s tweet.
Many have been quick to poke fun and express horror at the lengths that some are willing to go to for MrBeast. To be fair, the work he’s asking them to do is something that they could literally be getting a salary for as a retail merchandiser or shelf stocker. Regardless of how people feel about that, telling your fanbase of millions to destroy or otherwise obfuscate opposition stock might be illegal.
Some of his fans have taken this seriously, while others admit they’re just buying into the trend as a joke. MrBeast deleting the tweet likely shows the YouTuber’s realization that such a statement, even as a joke, can get his fledgling business in a lot of trouble. There’s nothing wrong with challenging a classic brand like Hershey’s, but Walmart will need to continue to carry the product to stand a chance.
In response to MrBeast asking his fans to help clean up his bars and mess up the competition, some accounts on Twitter have pointed out that this is a new, and worse, form of capitalism. Others argue just volunteer labor on an extremely wide scale. Mr. Beast is using his clout to get free work out of those who feel inspired by his past work, and many aren’t happy about it.
This has been ripe material for memes following the two posts. With someone who proposes to be as rich and generous as MrBeast does, it’s unclear why he would need to ask for unpaid nationwide labor.
Ideally, MrBeast will be able to set up his own merchandising teams soon or work through the many agencies in the country to ensure that his displays are up to his standards. Regardless, he’s now started a trend amongst his fans that will lead to people who are happy to do work for him every time they take a trip to the grocery store.
