Clarkson’s Farm Presenter Kaleb Cooper Receives Backlash After Controversial Instagram Post

Kaleb Cooper, a TV star who rose to face in Jeremy Clarkson’s new Amazon show Clarkson’s Farm, has received a number of negative responses to videos posted to the farmer’s Instagram account.

The videos were ads alongside McDonald’s, with the aim to educate his followers on how the fast food company is using their used cooing oil to create biodiesel.

He wrote to his 930,000+ follower:

“#AD @McDonaldsUK got me to trade in my tractor for the day for one of its trucks.

“I was shown how the used cooking oil is turned into biodiesel that powers over half of its delivery trucks!

“Check out my video to see how McDonald’s (and me) is powered by fries #PlanForChange.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWV8ClijoEg/

The video follows Kaleb to McDonald’s where he talks to the camera:

“Hello, I’ve left the tractors and the countryside behind as McDonald’s is doing something very interesting with their delivery trucks and I want to find out more.

“I love fries and I love the environment. How can the two possibly be linked?”

McDonald’s Sustainability Officer Sasha Segar then tells Kaleb what they’re doing to support the environment: “Used cooking oil is then converted into biodiesel that powers more than half of our delivery trucks.”

“More than half?” Kaleb responded, shocked by the statement before he can be seen driving one of the delivery trucks shouting out the window: “The power of fries!”

Kaleb was obviously moved by this campaign and genuinely interested in its reasoning, but despite this, some followers deemed his a “sell out”.

“Don’t sell your soul to the devil,” one of his followers commented as another just penned “Sell.out.”(sic).

Others were clearly disappointed that Kaleb had featured an ad on his own account, commenting: “Swapped milking cows for milking the gravy train I see………..such a shame you’ve sold your soul.

“Dare I say, bet you have an agent and someone running your social media for you as well.”

Another attempted to damn Kaleb with the comment: “Kaleb. I like you mate your funny.. but this isn’t gonna be received well.”

Of course, the majority of followers were keen to defend Kaleb, stating rightly that he has every right to share an ad on his own account, especially one that follows Kaleb’s own beliefs and from a company that buys from British farms.

“Why are people hating on Kaleb?”, one asks. “So what he made an ad with McDonald’s and got paid for it congratulations to the man he has a family to provide for!

“Why is it whenever someone starts doing well in life some people have to hate on it and try to find problems like any of you would say no if McDonald’s got in touch and said we will pay you x amount of thousands to do this ad with us!

“Not at all youd all jump on it just like me just like any normal person would leave the man alone and let him enjoy his moment if you dnt like it scroll past and dnt comment at all!!!! Rant over and congratulations kaleb I can see you having a bright future mate and you deserve it!”(sic)

As his following grows, like any other person with a large social following, he will attract a range of positive and negative comments. But we know Kaleb is pure at heart and doing these things for the right reasons. He is, after all, a strong advocate for supporting farmers in this country.

But at the same time, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t feature ads on his own accounts, especially ones that, like I said, align with his own interests. Jeremy Clarkson has said himself that he’s worried about Kaleb’s financial future:

“Kaleb’s fantastic, but it worries me how he’ll ever be able to afford his own farm,” Jeremy said in an interview with the Sun.

“He’s up against hedge fund managers now who don’t necessarily want to farm it.”

If Kaleb can find a company that will pay him to educate his followers on something he believes in, more power to him.