Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #628

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MrBeast Defends Trapping Man In Burning Building For $500,000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNXtUPIIUZU
dystopian and "humili- ating".
But some did highlight it was unlikely Eric was ever in any real danger, with at least one other describing it as "a PR stunt".
Eric eventually com- pleted the challenges with a haul of $350,000 (£260,000).
Reacting to the back- lash, MrBeast said: "This blew up, if you're curious obvi- ously we had ventila- tion for the smoke and a kill switch to cut off the fires.
"We had profession- als test this extensive- ly and the guy in the video as stated is a professional stunt man. I take safety more serious than you could ever imag- ine", he said on social media platform X on Monday.
A pinned comment on the original YouTube video added: "We also had a pyro team [specialists in fire effects] controlling the fires and multiple fire suppression methods on every challenge to ensure we could essentially turn off the fire if there was ever
an issue.
"But our stunt coordi- nator did an amazing job as always, and none of these sys- tems were ever need- ed. Just wanted to be transparent with you all since I saw some concern!"
As one of the most popular content cre- ators on the planet, MrBeast has a num- ber of other business ventures and last year hosted Beast Games, an Amazon series which saw 1,000 peo- ple competing in a series of elimination challenges for a $5m (£3.9m) cash prize.
But the series was named in a
lawsuit where some contestants claimed they'd been "exploit- ed" during filming - allegations Donaldson said had been "blown out of proportion".
In May, the Mexican government accused him of "exploiting" the Mayan pyramids for a video and the month before he had to apol- ogise when fans had a "horrible" experi- ence at a Las Vegas event in his name.
By
Tom McArthur, BBC
MrBeast, the world's biggest YouTuber, has defended his latest stunt video - "Would You Risk Dying for $500,000 (£372,000)" - which shows a pro- fessional stuntman escape a blazing building while collect- ing bags of cash.
The fiery spectacle sparked fury, as some online suggested it was dangerously irre- sponsible and could put viewers who might copy the clip at
risk.
In response to the criticism, MrBeast - real name Jimmy Donaldson - said "I take safety more seri- ous than you could ever imagine." Donaldson has more than 440 million sub- scribers on YouTube and is believed to be its highest-paid cre- ator. His business ventures also include fast food and an Amazon TV gameshow, Beast Games.
The video, first posted
to
YouTube on Saturday, currently has more than 45 million views. In it, Eric, the contest- ant, takes on seven "death traps" includ- ing getting shot out of a cannon into some fire, "surviving" mas- sive explosions, as well as escaping from what appears to be a mock-up of a small house.
The dramatic but highly produced scenes in the video prompted condemna- tion online, with social media users calling it
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