Nuseir Yassin better known as Nas of Nas Daily was recently under fire from local Singaporeans for his ultra-positive video about Singapore which he made during his short visit to the island – calling it an ‘almost perfect’ country.
In response to backlash and accusations that his video was sponsored, Nas clarified that the one-minute travel log of the Lion City was not sponsored. He later also clarified to the Strait Times that 97% of his videos aren’t sponsored. He apparently just really liked what he saw in Singapore.
However, NTUC Income recently released a video on their Facebook that shows Nas promoting their retirement plan. In fact, Nas says right at the beginning that it is a sponsored video.
Now, the video was obviously shot in Singapore so it was almost certainly filmed at the same time that Nas filmed his other ‘not-sponsored’ videos about Singapore including the one about Singapore’s waste management system which has received over 65 million views on Facebook.
What’s interesting here is that although Nas has insisted that his other videos about Singapore weren’t paid for, NTUC is closely aligned with the government. Its current secretary general Ng Chee Meng is a PAP minister while a number of MPs head various divisions within NTUC such as the NTUC Fairprice CEO Seah Kian Peng.
So, this begs the question, did NTUC approach Nas because of his reach as a vlogger on social media or was it because they liked what they say in all his positive videos about Singapore?