As gamers, streamers, journalists, and others try to navigate the minefields of Hogwarts Legacy, one YouTube celebrity has found himself in hot water with a recent ad spot. Binging with Babish is a culinary YouTube famous for making meals and foods from pop culture media, including iconic meals like the Ratatouille dish from Ratatouille and the Krabby Patty from SpongeBob SquarePants.
Babish, whose real name is Andrew Rea, has over 10 million subscribers on his main YouTube channel, with all his videos receiving millions of views. His net worth is estimated to be worth around 5 million or more. With all that capital, many fans found it baffling that Rea partnered with Warner Bros. Media to create a sponsorship video for Hogwarts Legacy. The sponsorship is an ad spot video about the Full English Breakfast from the Harry Potter series. The video begins and ends with an ad read from Rea for Hogwarts Legacy.
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The video was released on February 23 and is not tracking to be one of Babish’s most popular videos, having only accumulated less than 700,000 views at the time of this writing. However, the backlash for the video has been vocal, with many fans expressing disappointment that the YouTuber chose to align himself with such a controversial game. This has caused many fans to unsubscribe from the channel and express their dissatisfaction with Rea’s decision. The main Babish channel still has over 10 million subscribers, and Rea has yet to release an official statement.
The controversy of the original Harry Potter author, JK Rowling, has plagued the franchise in much the same way as Voldemort has cursed Harry Potter. Because of Rowling’s anti-trans remarks, many people believe it isn’t ethical to consume or support anything Harry Potter related. Rowling always gets a percentage of all Harry Potter products, and people don’t feel comfortable giving her more money if she keeps using her platform to support her dangerous views.
