Babysitter Let’s Kid Take Drugs

Earlier today a friend on Twitter (and in real life!!) directed me towards a video which showed footage of a babysitter and her uninvited boyfriend doing drugs in front of the kid they were supposed to look after. Think that’s bad? It got worse, as the careless young woman also let the kid get away with trying some of Amsterdam’s finest ‘herbs’ and ‘spices’.

The video got picked up by some of the biggest blogs and communities in Holland including GeenStijl and Dumpert, as well as main stream magazine HP de Tijd. But that’s not where the story ends….

As the more cynical readers will have guessed by now, the video is actually a fake. The video was created by Green Jump, a company which sells biological food and products for kids. By the time they owned up to the campaign they had caused outrage. Tey had created a second video in which the connection between this kid having an early introduction to the Colombian marching powder and the Green Jump product range.

But by then it was obviously too late.  First people were outraged by the content of the video, now they are unhappy about being fed a fake video. And whilst shocking content can be great to create buzz you have to remember that the feelings people have whilst watching your content will transpire onto your brand.

Fake virals have been a point of discussion before, with campaigns such as ‘the guy with the jacket’ and the pregnant Danish woman. To be able to have any tangible value from a successful viral campaign you will have to own up to your content at some point (if it’s not clear from the beginning) – as such, do ask yourself ‘would I be pissed off if I found out this was fake?’. You may forget to ask yourself this questions, but your audience will not.

Had this video included a message from the brand at the end with a call to action they might not have gotten as many views, but they would have been more likely to have achieved their goals. Assuming the goal was not to piss people off.

You can watch the video here: Babysitter Let’s Kid Take Drugs – unfortunately the site does not allow embedding.