YouTube star David Dobrik is losing brand sponsorships after a woman accused a former Vlog Squad member of rape earlier this week. The woman, who is now 20 years old, claimed in an interview with Business Insider on March 16 that she was sexually assaulted by Dominykas Zeglaitis in November 2018. After the investigation was published, several brands told The New York Times they would no longer sponsor Dobrik’s videos.
“We can confirm that we are no longer working with David Dobrik or any member of the Vlog Squad and do not have any plans to work with them again in the future,” a HelloFresh spokesperson told the Times on Friday. “We’ve made the decision to end our relationship and cancel all planned activity,” a Dollar Shave Club representative added. EA Sports, which once gave Dibrik a Lamborghini, told the Times they are also no longer working with Dobrik, 24.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“DoorDash profoundly condemns the behavior of the Vlog Squad members, and we have terminated our sponsorship of David Dobrik’s podcast Views,” a DoorDash spokesperson told E! News. “This horrific misconduct is incongruous with DoorDash’s values and does not represent the communities we strive to create. Our thoughts are with all those impacted.”
In her interview with Business Insider, the accuser, who goes by Hannah, and her friends went to a video shoot for Dobrik’s Vlog Squad. Before the shoot, Hannah said she and her friends started talking with Zeglaitis, who wanted to “hook up” with them, accorrding to message transcripts Insider viewed. Hannah and her friends knew that Zeglaitis played a “sex addict” in the videos and were not sure if they were supposed to actually have sex with them.
When filming happened that evening, the Vlog Squad allegedly supplied alcohol for Hannah and her friends since they were all too young to legally buy drinks. Dobrik filmed Hannah at an apartment and when she entered Zeglaitis’ room, she claims. A few days later, scenes were posted on YouTube as part of a “threesome” plot in a video titled “SHE SHOULD NOT HAVE PLAYED WITH FIRE!!” It racked up 5 million views before it was deleted at Hannah’s request. Hannah claims she had a sexual encounter with Zeglaitis in his room, but was too drunk to give consent.
Zeglaitis is no longer a member of the Vlog Squad and has not commented on the allegations. The accuser did not contact police and charges have not been filed. Dobrik declined to comment through his spokesperson, but he released a video on the situation titled “Let’s Talk” on March 16, a short time after the Insider report was published.
“I wanted to come on here real quick and address some conversations that are going on on the Internet,” Dobrik said in the video, which runs two minutes. He said “consent is something that’s super, super important to me” and he “always” gets permission from the people how are in his videos. If someone requests the video to be taken down, he will, he said. Dobrik said that some of his older videos “don’t represent me anymore, and they’re hurtful to other people, and I don’t want them up because I’ve grown as a content creator and as a person,” adding, “I don’t agree with some of the videos I’ve posted.”
As for Zeglaitis, Dobrik said he “chose to distance myself” from people he no longer films with “because I don’t align with some of the actions, and I don’t stand for any kind of misconduct.” Dobrik added, “I’ve been really disappointed by some of my friends, and for that reason, I’ve separated from a lot of them.”
