ZOELLA

AKA Zoe Sugg

Zoe Sugg (or Zoella, as she is commonly known as), is a massive beauty YouTuber from the South West of England. She started her YouTube channel in 2007 when she was 17 years old and has amassed over 12 million subscribers and 1 billion views. Over the past 10 years, Zoella has become one of the biggest names in YouTube and has published her own book, created a line of beauty products at the UK's Boots and was even featured on the Comic Relief version of The Great British Bake Off ("Zoella").

While Zoella does not have any recent "ad" videos like The Anna Edit, there is some endorsement and sponsorship in her videos. In the description of many of her videos, such as "My Makeup Routine For Problem Skin Days," there is a disclaimer that "Links below marked with a "*" are affiliate links - which means I receive a percentage of the revenue made from purchasing products though this link" ("My Makeup Routine For Problem Skin Days | Zoella"). Instead of a video being paid for by a brand, the brands will pay Zoe based on if anyone buys something using one her links. This is different from the other sponsorships we have seen with YouTube, but it is still sponsorship and needs to be disclosed to her viewers.

CASEY NEISTAT

Casey Neistat is one of the most popular and influential YouTubers with his amazing cinematography and lifestyle. He has been on the platform since February 2010, has 8.3 million subscribers and over one billion views on his channel (Neistat, C.).

Recently, he was criticized for one video titled "FIRST DAY OF SUMMER," where he and two friends (Jesse Williams and Max Joseph) travelled through the south of France, living their summer fantasy. At the end of the video, the ending card reads: "This video was filmed entirely on the Galaxy S8. Every single shot. No color correction. #NoFilter." Other than that, there was no indication of this video being sponsored by Samsung or that Casey is actually a brand ambassador for Samsung.

Since then, Casey has added a disclaimer in his description that reads: "also - THIS IS AN AD, THIS IS AN AD, THIS IS AN AD. i thought that was clear. i do apologize if it wasnt."

This example of a sponsored post gone wrong, shows the murky grey area of sponsored content. According to the FTC, this type of content needs to be clearly labelled, but some influencers think they can get away with not disclosing their sponsors.

ANNA NEWTON

AKA The Anna Edit

British YouTuber Anna Newton started out on YouTube in April 2010 under the username "ViviannaDoesMakeup." Now she has 440,376 subscribers and over 65 million views on her channel (Newton, A). Her channel consists of beauty and fashion favorites, healthy recipes and lifestyle vlogs.

One of her recent videos (from November 2017), titled "What I Eat In A Day: Winter Recipes | AD." For her disclosure: Anna includes "AD" in her title (but not who sponsored) and a little blurb including who is sponsoring in the beginning of the description, as well as the end. In the video itself, Anna says "this video is actually sponsored by Waitrose" in the first 30 seconds.

As of December 10 this video has 86,000 views, which is on the lower end of her video count. This could be due to her disclaiming the ad in her title or just the style of video. Anna's disclaimer on her blog says that any sponsored content will feature the "AD" finish.