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About that BetterHelp Sponsorship (Patreon)

Published:
2024-06-11 16:19:17
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Hello everyone!

I see there was a ton of backlash over the sponsor in the last video.

This last video was supposed to be the first of three videos sponsored by BetterHelp, but given the response from this video, I'm discontinuing that relationship. I just want to put out fun videos that entertain and (possibly) educate. I don't want to work with companies that are going to upset my audience or distract from the content. And selfishly, I don't want you thinking I'm the kind who's willing to work with unsavory companies as long as it gets me a paycheck.

If you were unaware of BetterHelp's scandal, the FTC alleges they were selling user data (intake questionnaire answers, IP addresses, and email addresses) to Facebook and some others for the purposes of targeted advertising between 2013 and 2020.

I had no hesitation working with BetterHelp (and using their service) because they're not doing that shady business practice anymore. They've accepted their FTC punishment (paying $7.8 million in refunds to affected users) and changed their business practices to keep all your data totally private. Additionally, I've had a great experience with BetterHelp and received a huge amount of value seeing a therapist using their platform. But I see many of the commenters in the last video strongly disagreed with me and would like me to discontinue my relationship with BetterHelp.

I like BetterHelp. I've even mentioned them on video for free before. I've worked with sponsors that I don't particularly care about before, but they were harmless silly products like supplements or gift boxes. I would never (knowingly) work with a sponsor that I believed to be harmful or damaging.

Anyway, have a great day! If you weren't previously aware of the controversy surrounding my last video, sorry for making you aware!

Side note:

This isn't the first BetterHelp sponsorship I've had this year. I had a video sponsored by them in March. There were a few "I don't like that company" style pushbacks here and there, but the response was nothing like it was in this last video. Loads of people seemed genuinely upset to see me promoting BetterHelp this time. I'm curious what changed between March and now to cause this shift of opinion. Regardless, I don't want to upset people with my choice of sponsor, so it's time to drop them.

Comments

ezez

Appreciate you addressing it, ngl I think people kinda overreacted, I think in general real life therapy is always better but I think there's some value in better help for people who can't access or afford irl therapy. Don't take it to heart and keep up the amazing videos brother!

Evan Hartmann

Hope you have another sponser lined up and you’re not out of a sponsor for the next 2 videos. But you did what’s best for your audience who has strong feelings

Joe Zahler

I appreciate the transparency and the care for your community that you provide, with something like this there will always be folks that disagree with your decision no matter what it is. Thank you for holding yourself accountable even if this is a pretty minor indiscretion.

Eli Maxwell

I’m happy you’re no longer promoting them, they do have issues beyond their FTC trouble, particularly for queer people, if you’d like to understand a bit more about some of their other issues the therapist Mickie Atkins has a YouTube video where she goes into more detail on their unsavory behavior. I hope people weren’t too mean to you about it because it’s entirely fair to not know and I’m happy that you’ve had a good experience with better help but I’m glad you’ve decided to stop working with them in your videos

Keith Vertrees

Appreciate transparency and deciding to back out of the sponsorship. However, their bad privacy behavior 10 years ago isn’t really why people are upset with them currently: https://youtu.be/8ncsccGHX7k?si=81a8x8wto3GcaI1d

Sebastian Fischer

I guess public opinion doesn’t care much about fines and other punishments. And I can understand why, if it’s about such a sensitive topic as mental health. Better to steer clear as it could happen again. Glad to hear they helped you, though! Anyway, I think this is a stand-up move from you :)

Deviant Ollam

Hey thanks for taking a few moments to address this. Just about any sponsorship is going to have it's share of detractors... but, yeah, BetterHelp definitely generates especially strong reactions from folk. (They also get side eye from me) Your handling of this was pretty spot-on, explaining matters and also making your audience and their views feel seen and heard. Here's hoping that you don't need extra counseling this week from the extra stress this may have caused. 😁👍 Hugs to you, thank you for the terrific work, always.

Evan Sonin

I’m not sure what changed between March and now, but what I can say is that I only learned of their previous wrongdoings between then and now.

werethless12

Glad you made the right move. Hopefully more YouTubers follow.

Juhani Saarinen

Stuff happens when you do things. In Finland we have this saying, "You can't make mistakes if you don't do anything". While that is wholly not true, it its indicative of another saying "Tekevälle sattuu" or as you say it "Shit happens". Anyway, do as you please with the sponsorship!

Emil Wang

I think you did the right thing, although I don’t have any personal experience with them, they attract a lot of negative feedback. I’m glad you have had a good experience with them, and I understand why you don’t mind sharing that. It’s a really good concept they have, but I think they are ruining it with their “alleged” continued shady practices. Anyway I hope you are not out a sponsor for the next two videos. Keep up the good work :)

agingwheels
>>140555092

I'll be totally fine. BetterHelp was a bonus sponsor on top of Factor for the next three months. Saying no to bonus money kinda stinks, but it feels like the right thing to do

Linus

Interesting, I just read the comments because of this post. I think therapy is still a really hard topic to talk about these days, that's why such a sponsor creates backlash in the first place. I'm just assuming most people haven't and won't try their service but having heard one bad thing about it gives people reason enough, but I guess that's alright. The reason so many people pointed that out, might be a positive feedback effect, once people point it out, others will look it up too and make the same point. Still this is fine, though that might be the reason it just now happened to this video. Anyway overall I guess you handled it well. Thanks for your videos.

Taylor Jennette Zhu

I agree with your point of view you are expressing. I understand how you and others can find the service helpful while others don't. In reality that's kinda how therapy works in general. I also get why you'd rather end the sponsorship than upset your audience.

Ian Berg

I had no clue about any controversy, thanks fir being so responsive though. Here's hoping better help gets their poop together, cuz therapy works for so many people, hats off fir them taking some of the stigma off though

Eli Maxwell
>>140555193

Absolutely, here you are https://youtu.be/2ajzaGtilII?si=W3GcSCZ0M8jtrH_H

Henry Oberholtzer

Upping my patronage in the hope that someday you can do what you do without having to rely on sponsors!! Really appreciate that you are responsive to concerns as betterhelp does continue to run some questionable ethics & sucks even for therapists working for them.

Sean Feichtenbiner
>>140556444

It's not really about finding therapy useful or not that's the point of talking about this, but the controversy that BH is in the middle of.

agingwheels
>>140555236

I'll have to watch that later. I figured there had to be a video somewhere that was riling people up. Not that there isn't cause for concern, but some of the comments were more mob with pitchforks than actual concern

Taylor Jennette Zhu
>>140556444

I agree however I often hear the two arguments lumped together. The I had a bad experience and they are run by scumbags.

Bryan Lyon

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Betterhelp It's basically been the coverage and the fact that the crimes they were commiting were so brazen and trivial. If they're that flippant with user data once how can we trust them going forward?

AARGH!

All I care is you get whatever help you need to take care of yourself. I knew of the controversy, and just assumed this is one of those timing things in getting a video out. You do what you feel is right.

Wowdude87

I decided not to write a comment about BetterHelp because I assumed that because you had been using the service yourself, you felt that the product was still worth advertising in spite of controversy, but I can understand that in the wake of the reactions to their advertisement recently that you would chose to avoid them. Love your content man, here for the long run.

Stephen Greer

I was not aware that they solved their problems. I am with Vincent too, i knew you got benefit from them and it was coming from the heart to take a sponsorship with them to potentially get others help.

beRn

I like the ads wherein you use the 120v AC from your car to microwave something ;)

manchicken

I treasure this response. I think better help is fine now that they’ve taken their lumps and fixed the bad practice, but I also treasure you being able to do whatever you want with your channel. I hope this doesn’t suck for you, and I hope you still find paths to monetization, I love watching you have fun with a wrench.

Justin Tokke

It's the anti-corporate witch hunt du jour. Yeah, they aren't clean, but there's no reason to punish creators for that.

Bespoker Bespoker
>>140556700

I just did the same. Robert's Factor ads are funny, but in general, I do not like ads. Sponsorships with lengthy plugs (more than just a few words and a banner/image) are irritating too. Plus, the moment someone gives a creator money, it is nearly impossible to prove that there is no bias. In some cases, like if some battery company reached out to Aging Wheels because they offer custom battery packs for unusual EVs, I would not mind seeing him work with them to show off a product that fills a niche, but only if Robert can give his honest opinion about the product. I really enjoy Aging Wheels, and I hope he can keep being properly funded for the videos he creates.

Henry Oberholtzer
>>140556700

Yeah, I think ads are the worst part of the current content creation age. Thanks to things like Patreon though fans of specific creators can (hopefully) enable creators to not have to use their audience as a "product" to market to advertisers.

Sean Feichtenbiner
>>140559959

Except it's not an 'anti corporate witch hunt', though. There are a few legitimate reasons to dislike BH and discourage YouTubers from using them as sponsors with plenty of evidence. I'm very happy to hear that Robert (and others, undoubtedly) used BH with positive results, but I think Robert handled this situation perfectly.

Nonbinary gamer

I think people are mad because it's hard to trust them again. If a VPN, portable battery or even novelty wallet company had an issue with their product, people can evaluate if future release are good value for money again. But with health and personal data it is much harder to regain trust and I suspect with time more people will learn about BHs mistakes than forgive them.

agingwheels
>>140556700

I don't disagree with you at all. I also don't like having ads in my videos. It adds a bunch of annoying overhead to the video production and muddies the video with a product placement. My eventual goal is to create an alternative income source large enough to ditch the regular sponsors and only do occasional ads for really cool stuff related to what I'm working on.

Henry Oberholtzer
>>140556700

Yeah car projects aren't cheap so I can totally see needing sponsors for those sorts of things even with a sizable patreon!

Johannes

I wasn‘t aware about their shady business at all. But I consider your move very professional and honest. You’re a great guy.

The ZO Collective

I wasn't aware they had righted their ship. Kudos to you for listening to your audience. In this case it didn't upset me much and I also learned something. So that's nice. Thanks dude.

Justin Tokke
>>140559959

I didn't say that. Its more a comment on the level of backlash. BH has clearly done some shit things in the past, but *right now* more people are jumping on the bandwagon to dogpile them. Some of it is deserved. But the Internet's amplifying force explains why *this* video got backlash *now* while others did not.

Jan
>>140567851

I don't think they righted their ship. They still underpay their therapists, push them to work more than they should and I have no reason to believe that a company that sold sensitive user data before wouldn't do so again.

Michael Edelman

I have no problem with their sponsorship; they screwed up, and they paid for it. I don’t think they and all their employees should have to suffer in perpetuity because of it. But there is today a small but very vocal group that takes great pleasure in finding sins to punish, much like the inquisitors of medieval Spain, and there are even more people who will immediately join any such hunt for the guilty, lest they, too, be accused of sin. 😉

Gabe Wohlers

Thanks for addressing this! I saw all that backlash and was surprised by it, as I hadn't heard anything about this scandal before your video. I also like BetterHelp, I think its a good idea and much needed in this country today. I *almost* tried their service through your previous link, but couldn't swing the extra expense just yet. Hopefully the waters cool in the future and you'll have a chance to partner with them in the future.

Brooks Moses
>>140556367

My impression is that one of the reasons there is so much backlash about BetterHelp is, ironically, that Youtubers talking about therapy in a personal way is something that a lot of the audience values. And so it creates this extra sense of betrayal when it's promoted by a company that turns out to be scummy.

Brooks Moses
>>140559066

Yeah. I also think it's unfortunate that they decided not to address the "we've solved the problems" aspect in their ad copy.

Linus
>>140556367

I agree, and, to be honest, it's not a good idea to promote anything based on personal experience. Because people will hold you accountable for that, especially if it doesn't live up to the expectations you gave them.

Brooks Moses
>>140559959

I do think that a lot of this is not intending to punish creators -- most of what I've seen has been either about informing creators about the company's problems, or expressing unhappiness that the creator appeared not to do due diligence on their advertisers. But I haven't seen very many people saying "I'm not watching your videos because of this." Admittedly, maybe that's because I haven't read enough comments to see the punish-the-creator ones. And I do know the more well-meaning comments can end up being emotionally punishing to creators even if that's not the intent.

Dest

Do what's right for you. It's nice to know that a creator actually gets use out of a service, but I don't see anyone yelling at people for rsl ads.

Brooks Moses
>>140567851

Have they addressed the "hiring people who aren't licensed therapists" problem?

Rhynri
>>140556700

Hopefully we can help you get there, really love the content, and hope you can make it work for you as well.

Robert Sanges

I was unaware of the scandal. I thought your endorsement was from the heart. I think a service like that, promoted by a real user (such as the likable likes of yourself) would benefit many people. I guess it's too bad that mental healthcare needs to be coordinated by a for-profit company. I am super happy it helped you!

Andreas Holmstig

Which sponsorships you decide to go with is not really much of my concern. It's a tough world, and corporations are usually known to have a good side, but a questional practice at times. I have been following your content for multiple years, and I have for a long time viewed you as a very reliable and honest person. Although I've heard a fair bit about Better Help, but have not done any research, it isn't my place to jump in on any conclusions. Ultimately, what I have chosen to do is to increase my monthly patron by a fair bit. I have a stable, yet stressful job and I have the economy to do it without causing conflicts on my daily life. All the best!

Tommy Crosby

I think the biggest reason of the recent backlash is because they were BLASTED off of orbit after big YouTubers like Phil DeFranco exposed them (DeFranco himself was a BH personal user IIRC before). This was about malpractice and unlicenced therapists. The BH CEO was involved and it was a fiasco. Then you had the whole "seling information to advertisers like Meta/Facebook (that was settled in a recent settement). But recently as they decided to make a comeback to YT as a Sponsor like nothing ever happened, another scandal was exposed as they allegedly made (purchased?) a whole telemedecine site and the whole purpose was to claim that no professional was available and they recommended to use BH, so basically it was a buisness to funnel users to BH. This is why the new backslash was big. In all honestly, I usually don't get involve into backslash like that, because sponsors be sponsor and a ton are waste of money or near scammy (or a VPN, or Raycon, or Raid, you get the gist There's now YT channels that review sponsors and they aren't great most of the time). But I can't blame YouTubers for needing money. I'm doing my part of being a Premium Sub, but I can't afford 20 VPN lol. I was just concerned about you and others. I do work (well, volonteer) my time in Mental Health related NGO, so I know how dangerous bad actors could be. Also, Zoom cannot make a decent therapy session, my own favorite psy before Covid was totally lame during Covid because it missed the "human link". Anyway, I'm glad you well responded, I hope the backslash didn't give you a beating mentally. I wish you well. (And yes, I did join your Patreon just have this conversation with you. lol)

antibrevity

BetterHelp probably deserves this for it's behaviors, but I believe that this reached a tipping point on social media where BetterHelp has effectively been cancelled :(. I'm sure that the proper therapists have helped many people, but the company pulled some stupid stunts and now they are paying a severe price. There is no forgiveness or second chances in today's world and BetterHelp seems to continue doing things that people don't like. I'm sorry that creators are now being punished for the sponsorships as they usually *need* that sponsorship :(. A sad outcome is that the backlash towards BetterHelp will prevent many people from obtaining the mental health services that they need in a nation with a horrible mental health system and rapidly declining mental health.

Mark Mina

I'm conflicted by this. Obviously, peoples feelings are valid, but BetterHelp is genuinely a way creators can talk about mental health without it being a vulnerable moment, or being shoehorned in. Obviously, peoples feelings against it right now are totally valid, and taking a step back probably is wise... But hopefully it doesn't put you off this topic for sponsors. I feel sponsors can really approach people at a good time. I've used BetterHelp off of a sponsorship segment, as have a few friends, because genuinely, in that moment, that was probably the right advice to hear. I just hope the conversation doesn't stop, nor mental health sponsors. I think normalizing the mental health industry is only good. Even more so for these male dominated fields. god knows we have enough trouble getting men to talk about their feelings.

thomaspowell.com

I think the fact that you're a relatively small and niche content creator, not shilling products that are also the topic of your videos, and in this case, an actual customer of the sponsor, makes the sponsorship less problematic. Channels with a staff with which to take the pulse of social media before engaging with a sponsor would be expected to know better, but it really feels like BetterHelp hit a critical mass of backlash on social media about the time you probably were recording the video itself. And there was definitely a lot of negative buzz before, but it revolved around BetterHelp overselling what they were offering vs. buzz about actual shady practices and/or HIPAA violations. As long as you are authentic about your experience with the sponsor, I think the occasional misstep in accepting a sponsor that happens to have bad press at the time of publication should be 100% forgivable. And I'm not sure there's a sponsor that you could pick up that could later trash your channel's credibility as much as some of the finance and tech channels have done with theirs. And for the most part, I support any avenue accepted in good faith that helps you cover the wacky hodgepodge of unique cars and repair attempts, especially in your presentation style.