MKBHD Going 90 in a School Zone

Moose

Munchin and Musing

Posted: 11/12/24

It seems like MKBHD has been in a bit of hot water recently. If you don't know who he is, MKBHD is a pretty well known and well liked Tech Reviewer on YouTube. The first sort of really negative press I had heard he got was when he released a paid wallpaper app. People really did not like that, and felt it was against his general brand/ motto of "don't buy something now for the promise of what it'll be in the future" (or, that's the general gist, my wording might be slightly off). He eventually changed how the app works after a lot of backlash, and offered an explanation on his channel here. This took place about a month ago.

Yesterday (November 11th), MKBHD released this sponsored video, talking about the DJI Action Pro 5 and how he wants to start using it more everyday. This is a sponsored video, which a lot of people really didn't like in the comments. The video itself felt like a 10 minute ad for DJI. But what got even more people, was he included a clip of him driving, and in the clip you could see he was going 96 mph in a school zone (or, at least an area with cross walks for kids). It also looked like the max speed was 35 mph for that area. A user downloaded the video and reuploaded it here. I've posted screenshots below (In the original clip he gets up to 96mph total I believe):

A screenshot from a first person video of MKBHD driving a sports car going 54 mph. You can see past the windshield a sign that says 35mph A screenshot from a first person video of MKBHD driving a sports car going 95 mph. You can see past the windshield a yellow sign indicating a kid crosswalk up ahead

What makes this even more wild is that MKBHD is appearing to cover it up. From the comments on the video, it seems like in the original video neither of the speedometers were blurred (as does the reupload by that other Youtube user). When I originally watched the video, the main speedometer was blurred but the secondary one was not, so people could still see he was speeding. Finally, as I write this, the clip has been removed with this comment from MKBHD:

Screenshot of a youtube comment from MKBHD saying 'Cut out the unnecessary driving clip that obviously added nothing to the video. I hear all your feedback on sponsored videos too.'

A lot of people in the comments are, I think, justifiably upset. Some over the sponsor video part, but most over the excessive speeding, especially in a school zone. Just sort of wild to see someone's horrible decision not only filmed, but put in their own video. And as many people pointed out, that shot wasn't even necessary for this video, but was in there anyways.

Moose

Munchin and Musing

Posted: 11/13/24

Bit of an update, The Verge put out this article in which I saw MKBHD had a response on Twitter about what happened:

screenshot from Twitter of MKBHD's response to the speeding clip. It says 'Last video I did something pretty stupid. You might've already seen it, but maybe not so I'll address it here. There was a clip with the action cam of me test driving a car and going way to fast. Absolutely inexcusable and dangerous. I've since cut it out of the video with YouTube's editor tool. I also understand that this looks like covering it up, but I think it's the right thing to do. There's no reason to leave that clip in (there was no reason to include it in the first place) and I would never want to make it seem ok by leaving it in the video. I'm well aware of the Streisand effect, and I know everything on the internet lives forever, but I think that's the best decision right now. All I can do apologize and promise never to do anything close to that stupid again. That's a terrible example to set and I'm sorry for it.'

So, this already sort of rubs me the wrong way since it's like... The only reason he's apologizing is because he was caught... Like... It shouldn't have taken you being caught to realize 95 in a 35 is a bad idea. Also looking at some of the comments on twitter there seems to be a fair amount of "Haven't we all made mistakes? Haven't we all sped, come on this is ridiculous to be upset over". Which is such a wild take to me given that like, yes while I have gone over the speed limit on something like an interstate, I've never done 60 over in a school / kid zone. Wild it takes getting caught for someone to realize that's a bad idea.

Posted

by

Moose

It seems like MKBHD has been in a bit of hot water recently. If you don't know who he is, MKBHD is a pretty well known and well liked Tech Reviewer on YouTube. The first sort of really negative press I had heard he got was when he released a paid wallpaper app. People really did not like that, and felt it was against his general brand/ motto of "don't buy something now for the promise of what it'll be in the future" (or, that's the general gist, my wording might be slightly off). He eventually changed how the app works after a lot of backlash, and offered an explanation on his channel here. This took place about a month ago.

Yesterday (November 11th), MKBHD released this sponsored video, talking about the DJI Action Pro 5 and how he wants to start using it more everyday. This is a sponsored video, which a lot of people really didn't like in the comments. The video itself felt like a 10 minute ad for DJI. But what got even more people, was he included a clip of him driving, and in the clip you could see he was going 96 mph in a school zone (or, at least an area with cross walks for kids). It also looked like the max speed was 35 mph for that area. A user downloaded the video and reuploaded it here. I've posted screenshots below (In the original clip he gets up to 96mph total I believe):

A screenshot from a first person video of MKBHD driving a sports car going 54 mph. You can see past the windshield a sign that says 35mph A screenshot from a first person video of MKBHD driving a sports car going 95 mph. You can see past the windshield a yellow sign indicating a kid crosswalk up ahead

What makes this even more wild is that MKBHD is appearing to cover it up. From the comments on the video, it seems like in the original video neither of the speedometers were blurred (as does the reupload by that other Youtube user). When I originally watched the video, the main speedometer was blurred but the secondary one was not, so people could still see he was speeding. Finally, as I write this, the clip has been removed with this comment from MKBHD:

Screenshot of a youtube comment from MKBHD saying 'Cut out the unnecessary driving clip that obviously added nothing to the video. I hear all your feedback on sponsored videos too.'

A lot of people in the comments are, I think, justifiably upset. Some over the sponsor video part, but most over the excessive speeding, especially in a school zone. Just sort of wild to see someone's horrible decision not only filmed, but put in their own video. And as many people pointed out, that shot wasn't even necessary for this video, but was in there anyways.