Thelife- Insider surveyed 1,040 people to figure out how well certain influencers are known and liked.
- Jake and
Logan Paul were among some of the most well-known and most disliked influencers. - Data shows how the brothers careers have thrived amid controversy.
It's no secret that Jake and Logan Paul, the Vine-famous brothers turned boxers and bona fide social media stars, have built their reputations on controversy. As Insider's Madison Hall reported, both have seen their subscriber counts increase amid - and at sometimes, be propelled by - controversial incidents like the "suicide forest" video that made Logan Paul a household name (albeit not a positive one) in 2018.
Now, Insider poll data reveals that among the general public, the Paul brothers are some of the most infamous online celebrities, ranking as some of the most well-known and most-disliked influencers.
Insider surveyed 1,040 people through SurveyMonkey Audience to learn which influencers, out of a list of over 60, were among the most well-known, liked, and disliked.
Logan Paul was one of the most-known influencers and was disliked slightly less than his brother
Logan Paul topped the list of the most well-known influencers among poll respondents. While he wasn't as well-known as conventional celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber, or Billie Eilish, he was known by 30.6% of survey respondents.
However, 68% had an unfavorable opinion of him, while 13.5% had a favorable one. That kind of notoriety makes sense for an internet star like Paul, who rose to fame on the back of controversy.
In early 2018, he went viral after posting (and later deleting) a video of himself and friends discovering what appeared to be a dead body in Japan's Aokigahara forest, which is known as a site where many have died by suicide.
Since then, he's worked to rehabilitate his image, and as Insider's Lindsay Dodgson reported, it's somewhat worked. The backlash against Paul's "suicide forest" incident was swift and intense, and it's still considered to be one of the most egregious YouTuber missteps in recent history. Since then, Paul has connected with new audiences through his amateur boxing and podcasting careers, and for the most part, avoided major scandal.
Younger brother Jake Paul is slightly less well-known but more disliked
In comparison to Logan, Jake Paul was known by 29.5% of respondents, but 71.4% had an unfavorable opinion of him.
Jake Paul has been embroiled in controversy for a great deal of his career. In 2017, Paul was booted from the Disney Channel show "Bizaardvark" after his West Hollywood neighbors said that he had turned their street into a "war zone." Later, he was accused of taking monetary advantage his young followers, and he's come under fire for using slurs and posting videos that some said were inappropriate for his young audience.
The events of 2020 likely only increased the negative opinions some have of Jake. In June, Paul was charged with trespassing and unlawful assembly in Arizona after video circulated online that showed him present during looting and vandalism at a Scottsdale, Arizona shopping mall. He threw parties at his home in Calabasas, CA during the pandemic. Law enforcement were seen carrying large guns out of his mansion during an August FBI raid. Later, he told The Daily Beast's Marlow Stern that he thought COVID-19 was a "hoax."
The Paul brothers' notoriety is a testament to their relative uncancelability
Social data compiled by Insider's Madison Hall showed how both Paul brothers have thrived amid controversy, with their subscriber counts on YouTube not being significantly negatively impacted by backlash. Logan Paul's following dramatically increased following his "suicide forest" video, and while some of Jake Paul's stunts have at times lost him followers, his growth has remained mostly steady on YouTube.
In that sense, the Paul brothers' notoriety makes sense: while they've courted controversy for large swathes of their careers, it's one of the primary reasons they've stayed in the spotlight.
SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weight its sample based on race or income. Polling data collected 1,040 respondents December 24, 2020 with a 3 percentage point margin of error.