Online marketing is a cutthroat game in which the campaign that generates the most clicks wins. Unscrupulous marketers have always sought ways to leverage celebrities and their products to their advantage.

With the recent advances in video editing software, deepfake technology, and AI-generated content, it is becoming increasingly simple to make it appear that someone promotes an ideology or product, even if they have never even mentioned it, let alone used it.

 The Downside of Social Media Success

The most recent target of this digital bait-and-switch tactic has been the incredibly successful social media personality and philanthropist Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast. Jimmy made a name for himself for creating incredibly engaging video content, which he has matured into a multi-channel empire covering video content production, fast food, snacks and a slew of community and environmental projects.

One of the challenges with garnering this much success and brand presence at 25 is that it makes you the ideal target for creating fake content for brands you would not usually endorse. With the volume of voice recordings, videos and still imagery available of Jimmy, it will take a skilled AI artist little to no time to generate compelling video ads and sound bites for any product on the planet, including online casinos and various games of chance.

 Cashing In on the Beast Brand

According to Ryan Broderick, a former Buzzfeed Vice and Gawker journalist, several online casinos and events pages on Facebook were using Jimmy’s image in their marketing material.

The two examples he listed are videos uploaded by less than trustworthy Facebook pages, one which is brand new and the other which was a Brazilian wedding group but now only posts gambling content:

1. First is an edited podcast video of a conversation between MrBeast and fitness influencer Bradley Martin. The episode was edited to promote Pragmatic Play’s Sweet Bonanza online slot.
2. The same slot was promoted in another clip. The original audio had Jimmy giving away a trip to Disneyland; the edit turned it into a casino promo video with online slot gameplay encouraging players to try the game.

Broderick and others are calling on social media platforms to take action against accounts promoting fake influencer content. While Meta currently requires AI-generated content to be labelled as such, these videos exploit a wording loophole. These are not AI-generated videos but "normal" video edits using voice and video inserts and overlays.