What the MrBeast controversy says about virtual brands

What’s going on with MrBeast Burger? In this week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive,” Senior Technology Editor Joe Guszkowski joins me to discuss virtual brands and, in particular, MrBeast Burger. If you haven’t heard, the YouTube star MrBeast has said publicly that he has pulled his support from his virtual brand, MrBeast Burger. He has since pulled the tweets in which he has said this, but the comments generated a LOT of attention. MrBeast Burger is the most successful of a generation of virtual brands. I talk with Joe about what MrBeast’s complaints are, what that might do to the virtual brand itself and what it means for the whole trend if he is indeed stepping away. We also talk about NextBite, another virtual brand company that was recently sold to the owner of rival C3. But most of our discussion is on Mr.Beast Burger and that whole mess. We’re talking virtual brands on A Deeper Dive so please check it out.