Today I wanted to hit pause on my resource posts so that I could indulge in some genuine blogging. Yep, I’m spouting forth my own thoughts and ideas on this one!

So, I saw a Facebook friend share the following video earlier this week. Given that it garnered 3-million views in its first week (and was at 44 million when I watched it) – it is the definition of viral. 2-years later, and we have to give it credit. It continues to pique the interest and ire of the interwebs. At least that is what I assumed when I watched it:

In actuality, these days it seems to be less about interest, and more about ire. If the comments section was anything to go by, the biggest issue about this clip today is whether it is genuine or not. Honestly – from a benign “This is fake…” to a more scathing, “ITS JUST SOME GEE BAG SLUT TRAMP TRYING TO GET INTERNET FAMOUS BY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF PEOPLE’S EMPATHY…”, the negative, stupid, and outright trolling commentary on this video is mind-boggling! How could people so quickly miss the “moral of the story”?

You know what? Yes – the video was staged. I know this because I did five minutes of research to discover that the Belgrade office of global advertising juggernauts Saatchi & Saatchi were behind the whole thing: “Saatchi & Saatchi Belgrade and Fund B92 [decided] to take action, shake the public out of the lethargy and put [domestic violence] into the focus of Serbian society.”

At it’s heart, this video was a PSA addressing domestic abuse. It was as simple as that. The moral of the story was – and is – to raise awareness about this issue: and in its early stages, I would argue that it was a success. “Media outlets from all over the world have been reporting on this cry for help by an anonymous victim of domestic violence, which is in itself a testament of how widespread this problem is.”

Whether it was a real person who felt that was their only way of dealing with the situation, or whether it was an actor playing a role – that question ought to have been a distant runner up to the impetus behind the video: let’s shine some light on the cowardly men who are beating up on women. If your first response was that the whole thing was fake or – worse still – that the woman involved was just a “gee bag slut tramp trying to get internet famous…” – then I would humbly suggest that you’re missing the point, and the Internet would be a better place without such stupidity clogging up the bandwidth.