I think the idea about the legal ramifications is that it might have made it easier to get the guy to quit. Sure, if he’s still on as an owner, then that’s less likely. But if he’s leaving altogether, the potential lawsuit could easily have been used as leverage to get him to leave at a lower price.
As for the rest: I get most of it, but are you saying they plan to go back and edit out all of his contributions in the past? That seems not only overkill, but very difficult to do on YouTube. You can do some level of editing of videos without taking them down, but I would think videos with him would need to be reworked. If so, they’d need to replace videos, and take a huge financial hit on that.
Well, unless they’re big enough YouTube will let them replace the videos in place. They do that for, say, VEVO, who handles most of the music videos, as well as some Hollywood. If they can do that, maybe it wouldn’t be as bad. But, still, that much editing and reworking? Yikes.
Removing him from here forward makes sense, as might taking off things that are just about him. But erasing him seems ill advised. And that’s just the financial and business implications, not the ones about whether it’s better for society to erase problematic people from the record.
I’m not a big fan. I have seen some of their things mostly on Buzzfeed so I’m not completely unfamiliar with them. I’m sure Miller’s explaination about branding is on point. But damn that video was over the top. With the tone they took I would have thought he was caught drowning puppies and kittens.
official Try Guys merchandise, including a figurine with a plastic Ned that repeats the phrase “my wife” at the press of a button. His public persona is so tied to his wife that even his Instagram bio reads, “Comedian and #1 NYT Bestseller | The Try Guys / (aka @arielfulmer’s Husband).”
This also apparently screwed up an upcoming big deal with The Food Network. It was their baby for eight years and Ned has potentially sunk the ship. I’d be pissed too. Not to mention Patreon fans.
In recent years, it has become much less acceptable for a person in a position of power to have a relationship with a subordinate from work. Attitudes have shifted since the 1990s when many people defended Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky on the grounds that it was consensual. A few years ago, McDonald’s fired their CEO for having an affair with an employee (and he later had to return his severance money when it was revealed he had affairs with several women at the company). He’s not the only CEO to lose his job over a relationship with an employee, Brian Krzanich from Intel resigned after his relationship came to light.
Their over the top reaction makes me wonder about a Shakespeare quote ‘me thinks the do protest too much’.
After all, given the statistics that about 50% of marriages are non-monogamous, the odds are that there is one more of the Try Guys not being faithful.
I buy that it’s social media concerns. They’re probably scared to death they’ll be kicked off you tube. Or, maybe they knew about it and are now taking a strong stance against it to cover their tracks. I agree with the OP that it seems like a slight over-reaction.
This is just me speaking ex cathedra from the seat of my pants, but I’d guess that the fact that Fulmer’s paramour was an employee is what drives their overtly public casting out of the sinner. There’s doubtless some real anger at the damage he’s inflicted on their company and brand, of course. And probably some outrage on behalf of his wife; she might be a friend of the other guys, as well. But #MeToo has rightly focused society’s attention on the dangers of sex in the workplace and the power imbalances implicit therein.
I’m curious how he’s going to pay the bills from now on. His name is toxic in the YouTube-iverse, and that’s all he’s done for decades. I suppose he could go into some production job behind-the-scenes somewhere, in a job where his name isn’t likely to make the credits. That, or maybe he could go back to being a chemist (he has a degree in chemistry from Yale).
Yeah, “my wife” and “Yale” are essentially his entire personality. Professionally, he’ll be just fine. He’ll likely never work in the public eye ever again, but that’s probably a good thing for everyone.
From what I’ve seen of people talking about working there, it seems that Ned was extremely overqualified to work at Buzzfeed. Keith from the Try Guys describes that he came to L.A. with zero professional experience and had only very rudimentary skills in computers, camerawork, and video editing from college and doing comedy independently, but apparently those are all it took to get a job at Buzzfeed.
Anger on a personal level is understandable. If they made a video saying “He’s out, we’re pissed” I wouldn’t have had a second thought. Instead we get a publicist written, lawyer approved message that takes a legal consensual relationship and treats it more serious than the Warren Commission. Him being out makes sense. The need to be upfront with the audience is understandable. A video that makes it seem like a Harvey Weinstein level offense feels over the top to me. There is no right or wrong that’s just my personal feelings when watching the video.
And, like Easterbrook, it’s likely this isn’t the first tryst of Ned’s, it’s just the first that got caught.
If Try Guys were to go through all the work of trying to rehabilitate Ned’s name (if that’s even possible at this point), and then find out about further affairs, that could cause even more harm to the channel.