The return (and potential end) of the fake Lairds and Ladies of Scotland

YouTube creators revolt against Established Titles sponsorship

Back in the distant past of … checks calendar… March 2022, I first wrote of a long running scheme of Scottish souvenir plots. In brief, you pay a bit of cash for a square-foot of land, and in return you get a certificate declaring you a laird or lady and the dubious privilege of buying branded kitsch. You can read more about the loopholes that companies that sell souvenir plots exploit in that original newsletter.

When I first wrote about souvenir plots, I was inspired by the Highland Titles Ltd sponsorship of some of my favourite Youtube channels, and attempts to cash in on the Oscars and the release of the game Elden Ring. Euronews.green wrote an article soon after, exploring the operations of Highland Titles Ltd further. Highland Titles disappeared off of the Youtube landscape with little to no fanfare or scandal, but it continues to sell its gag-gift titles in Scotland and in Ireland.

This has all somewhat changed this week as the controversy behind souvenir titles has roared into public consciousness due to Youtube. Taking advantage of the upcoming holiday season and the glut of last minute shoppers, Established Titles stepped into the breach to get some of that sweet Secret Santa cash, and placed sponsored ads on a wide range of Youtube channels, reaching out to content creators in the genres of pop culture commentary, anime, and gaming. Whereas I only personally saw a limited number of Highland Titles Ads earlier in the year, Established Titles appeared to have more visibility. This may have contributed to their catching the attention of creators in another popular Youtube genre: Exposing Scams.

YouTuber Scott Schafer kicked it all off with his initial dissection of Established Titles, followed by a second video that investigated the scam further, as well as addressing some of the blowback he received for his valid criticism. Much of the first video covers what I wrote about in my original piece in March pertaining to the legality of souvenir plots and who actually owns the land. Schafer also throws some shade on Established Titles' claims that they also plant trees as part of a conservation effort (if you want to know more about the controversy about tree planting projects, read this Skeptics Newsletter piece).

The pièce de résistance of Schafer's first video is his deep dive into the ownership of Established Titles. He thought it weird that the owner, Katarina Yip, lived in Hong Kong. She is the co-owner of the weirdly named fail ventures.

Katarina Yip

As per the website, they proudly advertise that 72 of their businesses have failed and 6 have succeeded, as they focus on ideas that are quick to launch and thereby are quick to sink or swim. Their website has changed since Schafer's video, but amongst the successes of fail ventures, aside from Established Titles, were Deal Dash, Galton Voysey, and Kamikoto Japanese Knives. Galton Voysey is the manufacturing arm of fail ventures' various products such as the Kamikoto knives and sorting out the sponsorship for the souvenir plots. Deal Dash is the dodgiest of the lot. It is an auction site where you can potentially score steep discounts on expensive products. However, rather than only paying when you win the auction, with Deal Dash you must pay for any bid you make, even if you lose. While this is outlined in small print on the site, we know most people don't read the fine print. Schafer then points out how deep the rabbit hold goes as many of fail ventures…well…failed ventures had products that were sold on Deal Dash, and were not the high end products they were made to be. Thus, bidders were paying far more than the product was worth, which led to lawsuits against the company.

In his follow-up video, Schafer highlights that in their official advertising Established Titles allowed words like legally and officially in relation to their souvenir plot. He also included a clip of an interview with owner Katarina Yip admitting that they did not provide YouTube creators with accurate information about the legality of these claims in the advertising brief, and that they will improve on this in the future. Yip has put out a letter dismissing Schafer's claims but in his video Schafer does demonstrate, through the use of the Wayback Machine, that Established Titles made edits that addressed Schafer's criticism after Schafer's video came out.

In the week since, many YouTubers who had run Established Title ads have parted ways with the company, such as Browntable, Bennett the Sage, and Lore Reloaded. LegalEagle (2.63M subscribers) summarises the legal side and states that it is a scam. Not all have responded to Schafer's video positively or uncritically. Michael Burns of Wisecrack (3.11M subscribers) talks about the issue during a livestream (14:50 minute point) as they were going to film a sponsored ad for the company before backing out. For context, Wisecrack is big on philosophy, media literacy, and digital culture/economies. This channel has a sizable following with decent audience engagement by Michael. Burns characterised said audience as smart critical thinkers who would either see it for the goofy thing that it was, or just ignore the ad entirely. While Burns is all sarcasm, he nonetheless admits that he is skeptical that people who buy souvenir plots actually believe that they own land. This is a dangerous viewpoint from an advocacy stance, because regardless of the minute amount of ad revenue to be gained from the sponsorship, adequate financial and media literacy cannot be assumed of one's audience.

It's also a misinformed view because, according to the office of the Lord Lyon, people do try to register for a coat of arms based on their 1 square-foot plot.

Nevertheless, Burns does make some valid points about Schafer's bad faith arguments about the location of Established Titles headquarters. There are some smirking pot shots at Schafers language that his findings are surprising and shocking, but Burns is correct in some of the gaps in Schafer's knowledge about how international businesses operate, as well as there being a lack of knowledge by both the Wisecrack team and Schafer about owning and operating a business in Hong Kong and whether laws there are more lax.

Where from here? Will Established Titles go from a fail Ventures success to a new addition to the failure heap? Time will tell as the dust settles, bruised egos heal, and a new scam appears on the digital horizon.