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Forbes
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
How Dan Mace Is Making Kindness Go Viral: Inside Beast Philanthropy's Storytelling Super‑Power
Getting involved in Philantropy What happens when you merge cinematic storytelling with philanthropy — and strip away every trick that makes traditional filmmaking sensational? For Dan Mace, the creative force behind Beast Philanthropy, the answer is both simple and profound: you find a way to tell the truth and still move millions. Mace, known for his collaborations with creators like Casey Neistat and for his own award-winning films, wasn't initially convinced that the mix of philanthropy and YouTube's fast-paced attention economy could work. 'I struggle to see these videos getting any more than 5 million views,' he admitted when first approached. Yet, the very first video he directed for Beast Philanthropy soared to 20 million views — and changed the course of his career. 'I then studied that video for a very long time to try and figure out' why it resonated so deeply with audiences. Fast forward 29 months, and Mace has helped grow the Beast Philanthropy channel to 28 million subscribers, with most videos now surpassing 25 million views each. 'When I started, people would constantly say that it's impossible to make philanthropy films 'viral.' With Jimmy Donaldson's (Mr Beast's) dedication and my exceptional team at JOE, we are pulling it off, film by film,' he said. Traditional charity films often swing between two extremes: earnestness that bores or sensationalism that exploits. 'We refuse to do either,' Dan told me. The Beast Philanthropy team instead aims for the sweet spot where entertainment, inspiration, and impact intersect—content you want to watch and feel compelled to share. That alchemy matters because on this channel every view literally funds the mission: 100 percent of ad revenue, brand deals, and merch profit flow straight back into projects on the ground. Dan Mace is a creative and visionary Filmmaker, Youtuber, CCO (Chief Creative Officer) for Beast ... More Philanthropy and the founder of JOE and ALL OF US Studios in Cape Town. For Mace, storytelling has always been about emotion — the ability to make people feel something real. But philanthropy posed a unique challenge. 'With philanthropy, and especially with BEAST, everything that we say, everything we do, is 100% true,' he explained. 'Sometimes, as a director, I think I could make this seem a lot more impactful by framing it differently, but we have to focus on being really, really honest and still make it gripping. It's a fascinating challenge.' Music is one of the tools he uses to shape that honesty into something powerful. 'We score all the films ourselves,' Mace said. 'That really helps when you have the ability to control the emotion through music, you can work people towards a crescendo with different motifs.' He often records authentic sounds on location — the footsteps, voices, and rhythms of the communities they're filming — and weaves these elements into the score to make the films feel alive and deeply personal. Beast Philanthropy is not just about creating content — it's about creating change. Every view directly fuels real-world impact. 'The sums of money that come in through philanthropy that goes straight back into philanthropy is insane,' Mace said. Unlike most charities, 100% of the revenue from ads, brand deals, merchandise, and donations goes directly to the causes. MrBeast personally covers the production costs, ensuring every penny raised is put to work. But for Mace, the most powerful moments aren't on camera. 'They're not these really aesthetic pieces of content,' he said. 'They're just legitimately sending you a video over WhatsApp, thanking you and going like, you know, this is, look at the impact it's made on the community. And that for me is the most special part.' The scale of Beast Philanthropy's work is staggering. In the past two years, the team has launched 30+ films spanning more than 20 countries, delivering everything from life-saving surgeries to solar-powered villages. They've built homes for orphans in South Africa, provided 20,000 pairs of shoes for school children, and funded 100 heart surgeries for children in Nigeria. In Asia, they've powered a mountain hospital and birthing center in Nepal, given 2,200 prosthetic limbs in Cambodia, and rebuilt shelters for hundreds of animals in Thailand. In the U.S. alone, the channel has donated over $2.7 million in clothing, 13 tons of food, $1 million in dental surgeries, and supported teachers, hospitals, and mental health organizations. 'When I look back at the projects we've brought to life across the globe, I'm so humbled,' Mace said. 'Creativity truly has the ability to change the world.' Mace approaches YouTube storytelling with the same precision he learned during his years in advertising. His formula? Impact, communication, and persuasion. 'The hook up front, this is why,' he explained. 'Once you get into the video and the hook suggests that yes, the film is indeed going to show you what you've clicked on, you go into this level of communication, and that's where you solve the emotion throughout that communication part. The persuasive elements at the end… that's transforming in those last 30 seconds of the film, giving people the ability that now they really want to be involved.' This structure ensures that viewers are not just entertained but also moved — inspired to share, donate, or simply see the world in a new way. When Mace joined Beast Philanthropy, he wanted to create something with more depth than the flashy giveaways that defined early videos. 'The videos prior were kind of… bubblegum,' he said. 'They were throwing money down and had these little explosion animations. It's just not what I was interested in.' Today, every video is designed like a cinematic mini-documentary. A project in Colombia, for example, powered a remote island but also gave women a path to financial independence by creating a bakery. 'Does the creation of a bakery on an island sound as clickable as 'We Powered an Island'?' Mace asked. 'Probably not. But once we get them to click, we can introduce the deeper story — like women's empowerment — and keep them engaged through authentic storytelling.' For Mace, Beast Philanthropy offers viewers a simple yet powerful way to contribute. 'There's this notion where it's like, okay, there's so many problems in the world, which there is,' he said. 'If you go and you just view a Beast Philanthropy video, a simple view is giving back.' Even young audiences are finding inspiration in the work. 'There's been comments of kids saving their tooth fairy money to donate a few dollars to the charity,' he shared. 'That stuff is just incredible for youth. It's given a lot of hope' Our conversation ends with a mutual sense of wonder at what storytelling can still achieve. 'I've stopped trying to be the best,' Dan says quietly. 'Now I just want to share what I've learned. Because there are so many amazing organizations out there doing incredible work—but no one sees them. And views? Views create hope.' Beast Philanthropy proves that storytelling, when done with honesty and heart, can turn attention into real impact. With just one click, a viewer can spark donations, amplify awareness, and help change lives. In a world overloaded with content, these stories stand out because they remind us that even the smallest action can make a difference.
The Verge
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Home Depot now has an app-controlled version of its viral Halloween skeleton
The summer isn't halfway over, and Home Depot already wants you to start thinking about Halloween. After introducing a limited-edition animated version of its 12-foot-tall skeleton decoration last year, the hardware company is hoping for more viral fame this year with a new Ultra Skelly. At 6.5 feet tall, it's much smaller than the original towering Skelly, but Ultra Skelly features more animated features, additional lighting effects, and the ability to talk to trick-or-treaters through a mobile app. Ultra Skelly's upper torso and head can both rotate independently using motors, while the skeleton's right arm can move up and down. It has LED lights in its mouth and chest, as well as LCD-screen eyes (the larger Skelly has the same eyes), which can display one of 18 different animations, including cat eyes, hypnotic swirls, or even the waving stars and stripes for those who want to reuse the skeleton for July Fourth. It includes five prerecorded Halloween-themed phrases that play while the skeleton's animated mouth moves. You can also record up to 30 custom 30-second messages with voice-changing effects — or speak directly through Ultra Skelly using the mobile app while it's connected over Bluetooth. The original $299 12-foot Skelly will be available as usual this year, going on sale on August 4th through Home Depot's retail locations, online store, and mobile app. The new Ultra Skelly will be just slightly cheaper at $279. There are also several other options besides original Skelly and Ultra Skelly. There are new 5-foot dog ($249) and cat ($199) skeletons with animated LCD eyes, a new animated troll ($249) with a spiked club in hand, an 8-foot motion-activated animated dragon with a glowing and color-changing chest ($399), and an imposing 15-foot animated scarecrow ($399) with flickering LED lights in its eyes and mouth. And, finally, the 7-foot animated Frankenstein's monster ($279) introduced last year will no longer be scaring kids alone. He'll be joined by a new 6-foot bride of Frankenstein ($279) with six animated movements, animated LCD eyes, and four prerecorded phrases. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Andrew Liszewski Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gadgets Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech
News.com.au
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
7 best bag charms to match your Labubus
A little bit of fun, a little bit of whimsy and a whole lot of personality – bag charms are the latest fashion trend to grace our social media feeds and everyone is into it. People are now ditching the 'minimalist' bag trend and looking to ' Jane Birkinify ' their bags instead. For those that don't know, 'Jane Birkinifying' a bag involves personalising it with a culmination of bag charms, trinkets and other decorative items à la Jane Birkin. Our favourite bag charm at the moment is the Izoa Rainbow Teddy Bag Charm that's insanely cute and adds a tonne of personality in one. Plus, it's completely customisable and can be mix and matched with other charms of your choice. While chains, bows, scarves and keychains are the typical choice when it comes to decking out your bag, plushies have become the hot item for really spicing it up. Namely, Jellycats and Labubus. Loved by children and adults alike, Labubus are a highly sought after plush toy that come in a range of sizes, colours and designs, and are often sold as blind boxes – leaving the colour you get completely up to luck. The ugly-cute monster plush has become a global sensation – selling out online within minutes and sparking insanely long queues outside toy stores. They're incredibly hard to get your hands on without resorting to reseller prices, so if you've been wanting to achieve a similar effect without having to hunt down a Labubu, we've found the next best options. BEST BAG CHARMS Izoa Rainbow Teddy Bag Charm, $36 (down from $59) at THE ICONIC What You Need To Know This insanely cute charm is the one-and-done accessory that'll have everyone complimenting your bag. It features a teddy bear plush with a helmet, rainbow beads charm, smiley face charm, rope beaded charm and a coiled ring charm. Each charm has a key ring closure which makes it easy to mix and match with other charms and keychains of your choice. What You Need To Know This jellycat makes for an eggscellent bag charm. Made with a cute smiley face, it has an easy clip on design and features soft cream fur, brown cord legs and the signature jellycat logo tag. Miffy Eco Corduroy Keychain, $22.95 at Metro Baby What You Need To Know You can't go wrong with a Miffy moment. This timeless keychain features a 10cm tall corduroy Miffy that's eco-friendly and the perfect companion for your everyday travels. It's made from at least 90 per cent recycled materials inside and out, and contains 100 per cent recycled PET filling. What You Need To Know This simple but stylish cherry bag charm will pair perfectly with other charms. The bold red colour and hand-crocheted construction will give your bag that much-needed pop of colour. There's also a strawberry version. Rubi Bag Charm Double Chain, $14.99 at THE ICONIC What You Need To Know If you're not into the bold and cutesy bag charms, this double chain bag charm is a great option. Featuring a chunky chain layered with a smaller chain, it has two clasps and a star charm and it makes a good base for other charms you plan on adding. Rubi Bag Charm Padded Dachshund, $14.99 at THE ICONIC What You Need To Know Dog lovers, this one's for you. This sausage dog bag charm is everything and more – it features a puffy dachshund charm, a bungee cord charm and a block of chocolate charm. Add it to your bag and prepare for compliments. The SABRÉMOJI™ Fruit Charm, $75 at MAISON de SABRÉ What You Need To Know Crafted from the brands signature full-grain leather, this fruit bag charm is a stylish yet practical pick. It features a zipper closure and a secure clasp, and it's small enough small valuables, coins or even an Apple AirTag so that you don't lose your bag, It's available in a variety of fruits to suit your preference. Make sure to sign up to our to stay on top of the latest deals, trends and product roundups.
The Independent
18 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
The truth behind ex-vegan influencers now selling organ meat supplements
Another day, another wellness influencer on social media telling me I should be rubbing tallow on my face. We're in a strange era, because for all the medical-grade skincare I'm being told I should use by doctors online, there'll be another post featuring a woman in a floral dress slathering clarified animal fat onto her face and telling me to eat raw beef. 'Pure' animal products are a booming business. I see hundreds of animal-based diets and animal-based skincare routines being pushed to me every week. They have titles like 'what I eat in a day' and 'how I balanced my hormones', but the content is all the same. These influencers are eating meat and dairy, often raw, and telling us that 'straight from the farm' is the best way to support our health. If you cast your mind back to the early noughties, the big message was plant-based everything was the healthiest way to live. Clean, green beauty products were in, and recipes were more raw vegan than raw milk. So why are popular influencers now promoting organ meat supplements, carnivore diets and raw dairy products in place of tofu, courgetti and quinoa? And why did they flip the script so willingly? Registered clinical nutritionist Claire Johnson says: 'Good nutrition advice should be grounded in scientific evidence and high-quality research, so it's worrying to see that dietary trends can move as quickly as fashion. Post-pandemic, there seems to have been a notable shift from aesthetically pleasing and 'instagramable' vegetables and veganism, to hyper-masculine, meat -heavy, ancestral carnivore diets.' Johnson explains that her concern isn't just the extremity of these diets – which claim to improve 'mental clarity, benefit weight loss and reduce inflammation' – but how influential they've become among their online communities, despite lacking scientific credibility. More often that not, their arguments are almost entirely anecdotal. 'These all-or-nothing dietary patterns are being used as an engagement tool to cultivate community, followers and a sense of identity, rather than being rooted in scientific evidence,' continues Johnson. 'Many influencers will present themselves as experts and point to 'the science' about diet and nutrition without providing such evidence. And when studies are provided, data is often lifted out of context. Studies might also be sponsored by brands or contain a very small sample size.' I was a vegan for almost a decade and now, I eat chicken and fish and drink kefir, so I'm well aware of how personal needs and choices we make when it comes to our health can change with time – of course, the same goes for influencers. However, these so-called wellness gurus with thousands-strong followings are in powerful positions. By their very nature, they sway and impact the decisions and lifestyles of their followers, and they usually profit from doing so. Which is where the conflict lies. Nutritionist Clarissa Lenherr says, 'The shift feels less like a genuine health evolution and more like a reflection of trend cycles in the wellness space. Influencers often pivot based on what's gaining traction online, and right now, we're seeing a big swing toward 'ancestral' eating, with colostrum, raw milk and organ meats becoming the new wellness buzzwords. 'That's not to say some people haven't genuinely felt better after reintroducing animal products, but the way it's packaged and promoted online often lacks context, nuance or individualisation.' Lenherr also points out that while some might genuinely believe in the dietary shifts they've made, it's important to consider why and to be wary of anecdotal evidence that lacks context. 'In many cases, people aren't necessarily going from a healthy, balanced diet to an 'ancestral' one. They're going from a diet high in ultra-processed foods to one that cuts those out. The benefits they're seeing may be less about organ meats or raw dairy, and more about the removal of excess sugar and packaged foods.' A recent report titled Nutrition Misinformation in the Digital Age revealed how just 53 high-profile super-spreaders of misinformation were able to reach over 24 million followers. Most had no formal qualifications, yet often claimed some sort of medical authority. Johnson points out that unsurprisingly, 96 per cent of these content creators had a financial incentive attached to their posts. The most common subjects identified in the report included carnivore diets, seed oils and the ills of plant-based diets. The rapid shift from pro-plant-based to pro-farmyard has occurred against the backdrop of a global political shift to the right. The rise of carnivore influencers has taken place at the same time as the rise of the Maha (Make America Healthy Again) movement and the rise in viral tradwife content. The farmyard has been presented to us as idyllic and natural, but there seems to be a subtext here – a p ipeline into right-wing ideology and a yearning for a wholesome traditional era that never really existed. Many of the influencers pushing ancestral eating are also suggesting we stop putting our faith in the likes of 'big food' and 'big pharma' – there's a political, conspiratorial and anti-establishment edge to tallow skincare and organ meat supplements and one that can't be ignored. 'I can see first-hand these growing trends, whereby high-profile influencers reject nutrition science under the guise of 'natural' living or personal truth,' says Johnson. 'But it's no longer about evidence; it's about narratives and belonging, or worse, engagement, followers and financial incentives. 'A primal fantasy is being sold that eating like a caveman can reverse modern disease and solve issues such as declining male testosterone levels. These trends are not about nutrition science. They are about identity, especially masculinity, rebellion and distrust of modernity.' 'Post-pandemic, we've seen a declining trust in institutions, and a backlash against 'mainstream' health advice. This has gone hand-in-hand with trends such as biohacking and self-optimisation. Raw liver, bone broth and unpasteurised milk are being promoted as miracle cures to world health problems. And wellness influencers have taken it upon themselves to find and share extremely specific and unfounded self-optimisation hacks and dietary patterns,' she adds. What makes it more confusing is the fact that the same influencer selling a cure-all carnivore diet now would have been touting vegan beauty products and strictly plant-based recipes just six years ago – making it difficult to ignore the financial incentive driving these so-called trends. Navigating the world of wellness on social media requires critical thinking and, there are plenty of ways information can be warped into a politically charged message or money-making schemes. For example, Lenherr confirms that while liver is one of the most nutrient-rich foods out there, high in iron, B12, vitamin A and zinc, there's very little evidence that drying and grinding up organ meats into capsules, which many influencers are now advising, gives the same nutritional benefits as actually eating liver. She explains that 'a lot of these supplements don't even list the amounts of nutrients they contain, so you have no idea if you're getting useful doses or potentially too much of something like vitamin A, which can be harmful in excess.' As for vegan vs carnivore supremacy, Lenherr says that both diets can be done well, and both can be done poorly. 'A vegan diet can support long-term health if it's well planned, with enough protein, omega-3s, B12, iron and zinc. Likewise, a more animal-focused diet might work well for some, as long as it still includes fibre, phytonutrients, and a diversity of real foods. What's 'healthier' depends on your goals, your values, your metabolism and how the diet is implemented.' In an online world which is dominated by strategic habits, bio-hacking and lifestyle identity, common sense and balance often struggle to get heard. 'Drinking raw milk and eating raw liver aren't acts of rebellion, they're risky behaviours promoted as lifestyle choices – often for likes and sales, not health outcomes,' says Johnson. If you're unsure about a piece of health, wellness or nutritional information on social media, consider this checklist before sharing the post, making any purchases or changing your habits. Is the poster transparent about whether the post is sponsored? Do they explain why they're recommending the product? Do they link to studies, rather than just mention a study or statistic? Do they mention any possible downsides or who a product or habit might not be suitable for? Do they have any relevant qualifications? Are they a registered nutritionist, dietitian, doctor, or do they have formal training in health or science? After some practice, you'll be able to work out who is merely sharing personal experience as fact, and then the unfollow button is there for the clicking.
Times
19 hours ago
- General
- Times
Fast walking for 15 minutes a day ‘cuts risk of early death by 20%'
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