“I was a bit of an ass”: This YouTuber asked brands for free guitars at NAMM, and a viral video called him out – now Brandon D’Eon has set the record straight
YouTuber KDH has made name for himself calling out others – be they guitarists or brands – in the guitar space. And the latest to find themselves in his crosshairs is Brandon D’Eon, a popular YouTuber with over 800,000 subscribers.
It comes after KDH – who himself boasts over 110,000 subscribers on the platform – discovered an old video posted to Brandon’s channel which saw him approaching guitar brands stationed at the 2024 NAMM Show asking for free instruments.
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KDH subsequently posted a video to his channel titled ‘The WORST Guitar YouTuber I’ve ever Seen”, listing the ways he felt Brandon had been rude in his approach to said brands.
While it’s not uncommon for brands to work with influencers in the guitar space – with many such deals seeing these influencers furnished with free instruments in exchange for publicity or exposure – KDH takes an issue with how Brandon communicated with the brands he approached. “The real problem is how it was executed,” he says.
“Instead of Brandon approaching people and brands with respect… he chose the option to just walk up and demand free stuff, thinking that everybody would recognise him as the big star that he thinks he is,” he continues.
KDH’s video has since gone viral, amassing well over 300,000 views in just six days, and the pair have since had a conversation to straighten things out. And lucky for us, that conversation was recorded, and can now be viewed on KDH’s channel.
“A lot of the things that you said in that video [were] very fair…” Brandon tells KDH. “I did act in a way that was not super polite. I was a bit of an ass.”
Brandon contends, however, that his more “aggressive” and inflated “ego” was a persona, and not a true reflection of himself. “In my head, I thought that I did have to act like a bit arrogant to create engagement,” he explains. “I’m not saying I was right to do that, but I’m just trying to explain where my head was at.”
But when Brandon notes that his “yelling” at brand reps was part of this persona and performance, KDH is quick to point out the difference between yelling at a camera for engagement and yelling at real people.
“If I record a video and I’m being aggressive or rude, it’s not directed at anybody,” he explains. “When you take that [performed aggression and] speak directly to one person, then it’s directed at them.”
KDH also raises the point that those working at NAMM have to contend with less-than-ideal conditions, purely by virtue of the nature of the show. “When you’re working NAMM you’re hearing 50 guitar players play 50 different songs at 50 different tunings [all at once] and it’s just horrible,” he explains. “Then they’ve got two cameras on them, they know that it’s going to go on YouTube. They have to just accept whatever is said, because it reflects on the company.”
Again, freebies in exchange for exposure is part and parcel of the guitar space – and indeed many other markets. But the backlash recently faced by Brandon D’Eon is a reminder that how you might approach brands as an influencer is still important, and blindly pursuing engagement metrics like views – and adopting abrasive personas in the process – might be counterproductive…
The post “I was a bit of an ass”: This YouTuber asked brands for free guitars at NAMM, and a viral video called him out – now Brandon D’Eon has set the record straight appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
