Domestic violence charity creates fake Tinder profiles for abusive men in order to show women who are seeking love online how quickly a relationship can 'turn ugly'
- Miami-based ad agency Bravo/Y&R helped Women in Distress, a domestic violence center, raise awareness for the issue with Tinder Beater
The popular dating app Tinder has been transformed into a tool to combat domestic violence with a new social media campaign reminding women that 'even the most promising of relationships can get ugly in an instant'.
Miami-based ad agency Bravo/Y&R helped Women in Distress, a domestic violence center in Florda, raise awareness for the issue with Tinder Beater; by creating fake profiles for three 'abusive' men, the organization was able to engage hundreds of users in conversation, while urging women to get help at the first sign of violence.
A video for the new campaign, which debuted last week, shows how users who swipe through the fictional men's photo albums get a first-hand look at how quickly a guy can go from nice to violent – with the images descending from friendly and smiling to cruel and aggressive in a matter of swipes.
Dating game: A new campaign uses Twitter to raise awareness for domestic violence by creating fake profiles for 'abusers'
Clever trick: As users swipe through the fictional abuser's photo album, they see how he gets increasingly violent to the point where he is throwing punches
'We decided to raise awareness to this problem in the place where women are looking for their matches in the mobile era,' the clip explains.
According to statistics, a woman is domestically abused every nine seconds in the United States, and the campaign notes that violence can come from men who may have seemed like a perfect match at the start of a relationship.
Over the course of four weeks, the creatives at Bravo/Y&R made sure to 'like' every woman's profile they came across in hopes that women would look at the profiles in greater detail when they realized they had a match.
Smart thinking: The ad agency chose to put their campaign on Tinder because it is the place where women are looking for potential partners in the mobile era
Women in Distress also utilized Tinder's geolocation data to reach out to women in the Miami area who could use their help.
The clip notes that hundreds of women engaged in conversation and shared their personal stories after they were matched to one of the campaign's fictional 'abusers'.
'That's great! I shared this info with a friend that needs it [sic],' one person said, while another added: 'Well played! Thanks for the reminder.'
Great start: Women in Distress was able to engage in conversation with hundreds of women with the fake profiles, which included this one
Putting it to an end: The campaign also urges women to get help at the first sign of violence
'Thanks for doing this. I know this very well ... I lived it [sic],' a victim of domestic violence wrote back.
Although some commenters accused the campaign of being 'spammy' and poorly executed.
When AdWeek first reported on the campaign, one critic wrote: 'No, nice guys do not turn violent fast. Someone who turns violent fast isn't a nice guy. Not only is this spammy, it has the stink of calling virtually every man in the world an abuser - if only given the right prompts.'
Someone else added: 'People who communicate professionally (like advertisers) should know the problems with a phrase like, "Even nice guys can become violent fast.”’
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