THE EPIDEMIC

About the Work Cyberbullying has become a global epidemic that is the root cause for 20% of teen suicides. But because cyberbullying is harder to see than offline bullying, victims often go unnoticed until it’s too late. To create awareness of this unseen epidemic, anti-bullying advocate Monica Lewinsky released a unique short film that integrates real text messages to tell a hidden story. Designed to be viewed on mobile, the film seems to tell the story of a girl growing sicker from a health epidemic. The viewer is then prompted to enter their phone number to see what really happened. The same film then plays again, but this time the viewer receives real text messages at the same time as the girl in the video receives them. The texts totally change the context of the film, and reveal that the girl is a victim of Cyberbullying – the real epidemic at play. All texts were inspired by real cyberbullying messages. Within a week, over 200,000 texts were sent in 157 countries. It was featured on the Today Show, CNN, CBS, Teen Vogue, Daily Mail, and Fast Company and was tweeted by celebrities including Ben Stiller, Sarah Silverman, Judd Apatow and Tony Hawk.