The Cybersmile Foundation has launched its #TrollingIsUgly campaign on Instagram with the help of social media influencer, Chessie King.
Created by Adam&EveDDB, the campaign highlights the plight of abuse people are subject to by putting themselves online. It starts with King uploading a short video of herself in her underwear asking people what they think.
After a short period of time, the influencer received negative comments from trolls relaying nasty messages such as: ‘She so fatty’, ‘Girls shouldn’t lift weight, your arms are way to big’ and ‘You’re ugly, your face is still ugly’. From these messages, King and the Adam&EveDDB creative team made alterations to her body based off of what they were saying.
Throughout the day King’s body, via photo editing, underwent a waist tuck, slimmed down arms and legs, eyebrows removed, a shrunken nose, big lips and a boob job.
The result, a robotic scary looking alien figure, showed how she would look like if she were to take heed of the online bullies and alter her body as they wish.
The spot ran over the course of one day, using a few comments King received in less than 24 hours about each image she uploaded to the social media platform.
Each altered image was uploaded to King's Instagram stories, leaving her followers bewildered with some commenting that she should not take notice of the trolls. One commented: “It made me so angry watching your story".
At the end of the day, the content creator revealed that the images had been uploaded as part of the campaign with Cybersmile Foundation and directed her followers to the site to learn more.
Tammy Einav, joint chief executive of Adam&EveDDB, explained that it was important to her personally after reading that 40% of UK high school and secondary school students have been bullied online. On top of the one in four have suffered repeat incidents.
Dan Raisbeck, co-founder of the Cybersmile Foundation said: “Body image is a huge issue for many people, especially young women.
"We hope this campaign encourages people to celebrate their individuality and understand that other people’s judgements do not define them.”
Adam&EveDDB: The Cybersmile Foundation '#TrollingIsUgly'
