The Bitch Hits Back

WARNING: THIS BLOG POST CONTAINS  SOME WORDS WHICH  MIGHT BE OFFENSIVE.

I first saw this viral video on a popular Chinese social website called Renren ( Chinese Facebook ). In the video, a teenage girl violently beats a young boy after the boy pushes her away when they were kissing. I was shocked by the girl’s violent behaviour and  I felt sorry for the boy. The name of the video is “The Bitch Hits Back”, I then searched it on YouTube, it was updated by a YouTube user called "BITCH999991” and the caption of the  video was full of worship of violence. This uploader also provided a website and encouraged people to watch more movies of violent beatings. From the uploader’s name and the caption, I therefore firmly believed whoever uploaded the video must be a violence-oriented gangster.  Out of curiosity, I opened the website the “gangster” provided. It was a website which contained three videos on violent beatings. When I was watching the video on the site, a harsh sound came out from nowhere and a conspicuous red sign with some Danish words shown on the center of the screen before the webpage was closed automatically! I looked up the Danish words via Google Translate, and it says “BUSTED, VIOLENCE IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT”. I then understood  all the previous set ups. This video turns out to be a part of anti-violence public communication campaign, which conducted by a non government organization in Denmark called Børn og Unge i Voldsramte Familiers. The Main goal of this organization is to prevent  violence in families and in personal relationships.

Along with the videos, the organization also launched a game website  called “Hit the Bitch” (This website is now only open to users from Denmark due to “an extremely high amount of traffic”). The goal of the game is to hit a girl to see whether you are a “pussy” or “gangster”. After several hits you reached the point and the girl fell down, the moment you thought you “won” the game, there’s something shown on the screen:
"Idiot!
It is NOT gangster to be hitting women!
You lost the game the first time you raised your hand!
There is NO excuse to hit, so seek help before it is too late!” (this was translated by a YouTube user)

I like the initial idea of this PR campaign using game and videos to implement goals and I also admire the fact that this campaign is very eye catching. Also the campaign did a great job in terms of reaching the target audience. And the target audience they focus on is very clear – (potential) domestic abusers in Denmark (male and female).

YouTube has been used by the campaign as a powerful communication tool to reach the target audience and conduct the key message, however, what if some people only watch the video and don’t even click on the website which was given below the video? In this case, it is just an entertaining video for some people. As I was reading the comments on YouTube, I found out that vast majority of people who left comments found this video entertaining.  I believe only a small number of people realize this video is a part of the anti-violent campaign. 


Moreover, the messages that campaigns are trying to conduct are not strong enough to influence behaviour change of the target audiences. Especially the game campaign. Interactive games can always draw people’s attention in an online public communication campaign. This game does draw a lot of attention even from outside of Denmark, however, the message which hides behind the game is so weak. Why would an anti-violent campaign provides an opportunity for people to slap a poor woman online and then tells you that you are an idiot because you hit a woman. At least  I would not be convinced. Additionally, people would be so easy to be carried away by just slapping the girl and therefore the key message of the campaign tends to be ignored.



Sources were taken from: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyNxDfjq3XQ&feature=player_embedded#at=59  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyjWuULEPW0
http://www.familievold.dk/thebitchhitsback?utm_source=thebitchhitsbacksite&utm_medium=campaignsite&utm_campaign=thebitchhitsback
http://www.thebitchhitsback.dk/http://www.adverblog.com/archives/Schermafbeelding%202009-11-16%20om%2020.54.28.png

Share Happiness with Coca-Cola

In 2010, the world's largest beverage company had a successful PR campaign called Expedition 206, which was considered as the largest social media project that Coca Cola ever launched. Three "happiness ambassadors" were chosen through social websites and their mission was to travel 206 countries where Coca Cola is sold, and to report and document what makes people happy around the world via YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Typepad and other social websites.

The whole PR campaign sounds a little familiar to everybody. Firstly, the process of choosing "happiness ambassadors" reminds me of some similar campaign such as choosing the suitable island caretaker for Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Although the purposes of those two campaigns were totally different, the overall ideas are similar - publicise product and place by choosing suitable candidates through traditional and digital media. Secondly, traveling 206 countries reminds me of "The Ford Fiesta Movement". Both of the two campaigns shared a lot of similarities: a.The world travellers were all chosen from internet users; b. The traveling routes were the places where their products were sold; c. The purpose of traveling was to spread a certain concept.

However, the most distinguish feature of Expedition 206 was the widely use of social media - almost all of the mainstream social websites were used by this campaign. Different social websites have different ways communicating to various groups of internet users. The full use of various social websites enables a broader group of people from all over the world taking part in this campaign.

Take China as an example,Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were all baned in China, Coca Cola turned its focus on the most popular instant messaging provider in China - QQ. During the World Expo 2010, by uploading smiling faces, Chinese internet users could vote for the best one to become "Chinese Happiness Ambassador",who could have the chance to meet three "World Happiness Ambassadors" in "Shanghai World Expo 2010 Coca Cola Day". QQ also opened a blog for these world happiness ambassadors in order to share their experience to Chinese people. As a result, there were more than 1 million of Chinese people have taken part in this campaign;One hundred and eighty thousand people have visited the campaign blog. According to Anne Carelli, Senior Manager Digital Communication,"We have been extremely pleased with the success it's had in the different markets.The program created more visibility for the brand in key markets like China".

As far as I am concerned, the idea of Coca Cola's Expidition 206 campaign was not that creative and novel, however, Coca Cola made it at its best.


Sources were taken from:
http://www.aquarius.biz/en/2011/01/10/expedition-206-first-results-of-coca-cola%E2%80%99s-biggest-social-media-project/
http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/12/coca-cola%E2%80%99s-expedition-206-social-networking-meets-the-ultimate-search-for-happiness/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhAmMosaG7Y&feature=player_embedded