Lee Peterson on his lack of trust in #giftfromgoogle reviews:

As part of the Pixel 6 rollout Google gives out their latest devices to YouTubers and they are encouraged to share their thoughts via this hashtag. Don’t trust these reviews, it’s a gift so it’s already in the name they will mostly be a biased view point showing the positives not a real work review.

So just like pretty much every review then. Look I get it, the hashtag is a bit weird this year, and perhaps is a way to display #ad without actually saying it — but Google gives out Pixels to people all over YouTube every year — just like what seems like every other brand on the planet.

With that said, I agree with Lee. I absolutely do not believe what half the reviews say on YouTube currently. I have to watch loads of them to get an overview of what is actually going on and then try and pick out the topics reviewers have been told to cover. It’s pretty easy to pick them out because the same words are repeated but some brands are being downright manipulative about what is shown. Anyone remember the original Surface duo weird review embargoes? The below video from Mrwhosetheboss goes through the issues we face as consumers in loads of detail.