How a YouTube tech reviewer became the face of fidget spinners at 7-Eleven

Fidget Spinners are everywhere now. They've even made it to 7-Eleven stores nationwide.

Some of the convenience markets are using an unlikely marketing tactic: a thumbnail from a YouTube video. YouTube channel Techsmartt made a video called the $3 Fidget Spinner back in March, and the trend has since completely exploded.

Recently, the channel's fans started tweeting at them saying that the thumbnail of the video (a pic of Techsmartt's Keaton Keller), was being used as an ad for fidget spinners at 7-Elevens in Miami.

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"At first we thought this was a joke or one of our fans did it," Keller says. But then, he started seeing more tweets with similar photos from different 7-Eleven locations in Miami, so he decided to learn more. Keller flew to Miami with his friend Matt Jones, to check it out for themselves.

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When they got there, the two visited several stores and asked the staff why his photos were being used, but didn't get any answers. In one store, Keller brought 100 more of the posters and put them up alongside the existing four posters.

The channel's fans continue to send images from numerous other locations in and around Miami, as well as other places, like Connecticut and the UK.

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Keller has not given 7-Eleven permission to use the images, and the 7-Eleven staff they spoke to does not seem to know who put the pictures up originally. "Initially we were pretty excited seeing TechSmartt in 7-Eleven stores and then it went to confusion and now we are pretty upset that no one reached out to us," Keller said. Of course, Techsmartt made a video about the whole experience.

We've contacted 7-Eleven corporate for comment and will update the story when we hear back.