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My robot double sells out (so I don't have to)

Tom Scott · 3.8M views · 2022-04-11 · 8:32

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Overview

Tom Scott shows a robot double of himself, built from an Engineered Arts Mesmer robot, delivering a VPN advertisement in his place.

On Hacker News

Linked as an example of the honest, self-aware way Tom Scott treats VPN ads and their legitimate use cases.

Discussed on HN; no positive recommendation is recorded in this export · HN mentions 2023–2024

Topics

RoboticsProduct, marketing & salesSatire & parody
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tom scottrobotsvpn adssponsorship

What people said

throw0101a · 2024-10 · Reference

> Given the amount of advertising for vpns you might think they are a scam. Tom Scott did a video in 2019 entitled "This Video Is Sponsored By [redacted] VPN" where he explains why a lot of the ad copy at that time was often misleading, and why he didn't take money from them: * [LINK] In 2022 he made video with an ad read from a VPN provider with more honest claims about their use cases: * [VIDEO]

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throw0101b · 2023-03 · Reference

This reminds me of the 'original' 2019 video by Tom Scott called "This Video Is Sponsored By [redacted] VPN" where he explains most of the reasons listed to use VPN by ads is useless: * [LINK] And then a few years later with "My robot double sells out (so I don't have to)" he did a follow-up listing useful reasons (geo-based content, better prices on vacation sites, etc) which was sponsored by NordVPN: * [VIDEO]

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throw0101b · 2023-03 · Reference

> [LINK] This is Tom Scott's 'original' 2019 video called "This Video Is Sponsored By [redacted] VPN" where he explains most of the reasons listed to use VPN by ads is useless. However a few years later with "My robot double sells out (so I don't have to)" he did a follow-up listing useful reasons (geo-based content, better prices on vacation sites, etc) in which he was sponsored by NordVPN: * [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Tom Scott, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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