You know MrBeast, right? Most famous guy on Earth to anyone under, say, 22, completely unheard of to anyone over, say, 38. Generic ‘oh yeah I think I know him’ figure to those of us in the 15 year dead zone between young and old. He’s a YouTuber. He’s the YouTuber. He’s done a few newsworthy things in his time, but what I’m concerned with today is his latest product, Lunchlys. It’s a Lunchables knock-off. And its very existence is just a little bit annoying.
There aren’t really a lot of layers to this one. When it comes to the other stuff MrBeast has done, there’s room for cynicism and optimism. When you see him exploiting the less fortunate for views in a series of human bear-baiting exercises, you can point to the actual material good those projects provide, even if the motivation is something as shallow as ‘views’. When he buys homes for his homies (who are coincidentally his work colleagues and employees) out of pure generosity and a desire to foster a community, you can point to the fact they sound an awful lot like company towns which, historically, have been a pretty bad idea.
What Exactly Are Lunchlys?
This is not that. They’re just Lunchables, or more accurately, Lunchlys. Made in partnership with Logan Paul and KSI, these new must-have items for your kids’ lunchboxes contain a Feastables bar (the MrBeast chocolate), a bottle of Prime (the Logan Paul/KSI drink), and whatever the box is actually supposed to contain. Right now, there are three varieties: pepperoni and cheese pizza, nachos with cheese and salsa, and turkey stack ’ems, all of which are direct copies of Lunchable meals.
On the face of it, there’s not much wrong with these boxes. The pizza and nachos come in at 360 calories, and the stack ’ems are lower at 230 – this appears to be for the whole box, meaning the chocolate and Prime (which are both in mini versions here), are included. The pizza has 12g of protein, the stack ’ems 11g, and the nachos 9g. Feastables are pretty healthy as chocolate goes, with a much lower sugar content, and Prime has no added sugar, though it is highly caffeinated and artificial. Not a major health risk to your kids, but withas an energy drink in the packed lunches, maybe a minor health risk to the teachers.
The issue with this is that it’s obviously exploitative. When Prime was flying off the shelves, it wasn’t because the taste was just that good, or because kids really wanted an energy drink low in added sugar. It was because grown adults who have nurtured a parasocial audience of children told their loyal viewers to buy them. It was the same pattern as MrBeast requesting his fans beautify any displays of Feastables they saw in the wild. It’s the same idea behind all of MrBeast’s videos. He is doing good. He is helping. Do not look away.
It’s clear the trio have no shared vision for this. When criticised by fellow YouTuber DanTDM, all three had different responses. MrBeast, a natural at inauthentically appearing authentic, says “our goal” was the healthy alternative to Lunchables, and consider the product a “net good” – a common refrain for MrBeast’s contributions to the world. KSI instead decided to insult DanTDM for selling plastic toys, many of which KSI himself also sells in his own image. And Logan Paul, the most honest of the group, says they want to “build businesses” after spending their life “creating content”, which itself is a highly profitable endeavour for anyone as successful as Paul.
Lunchlys Vs Lunchables
There is a comparison on the Lunchlys website to Lunchables, and in calories and sugar, Lunchlys are a healthier option. But that’s not really the selling point. That’s the salve for a parents’ conscience. The real draw is MrBeast says he’ll like you if you buy this one and you’ll be the popularest guy in school!
It’s also fascinating to see how hard the idea of electrolytes is pushed on the packaging. Since Lunchables come with juice, not energy drinks engineered to still be cool to drink at the gym (for anyone over 23, this engineering failed), this is a comparison in which Lunchlys win big. They offer 400g to Lunchables’ 55g.
It has more value than ‘Big Gestures Vs Mid Moments’, which is a real comparison the site offers alongside ‘Flavorful Combos Vs Standard Picks’, even though they’re basically the same thing. Electrolytes aren’t of a major value to school age children. This is clearly only to justify Prime’s inclusion from a nutritional standpoint, and a further example of Lunchlys (and by extension MrBeast, KSI, and Logan Paul) cashing in on their popularity at the expense of their naive audience.
No, the trio are not the first celebs to sell merch as a cash grab, and yes, Lunchables is a massive brand made by Oscar Meyer and owned by Heinz, and therefore not in need of protection. But there is a difference between selling a mug or a poster or indeed a lunchbox, and selling food. The former is a one-off purchase you might get as a gift or buy to support a specific person in exchange for cash, and the latter is monetising a daily ritual for profit just because you can. It’s not that I think Lunchables deserves or needs this money, it’s that I don’t think kids are throwing tantrums about the store being sold out of Lunchables the way they will when everyone else in class has a MrBeast pizza.
It just shows a little bit of disdain for the fanbase. At least with the humanitarian MrBeast videos, you know what you’re getting into. It’s a specific brand of entertainment that, while worthy of critique, is very upfront about what it is and comes from a long line of reality show heritage. But selling Lunchables with your face on it, with another content creator’s equally obnoxious energy drink shoved in there, underlines that ‘viewers’ is just another word for ‘potential customers’ in the YouTube world, and profit is all that matters.