Share It to End It: Singapore bullying film shortens each time it is shared

An innovative approach to video sharing is engaging viewers in Singapore to reduce bullying. Singapore’s CABCY (Coalition Against Bullying for Children and Youth) together with the Harvest Centre for Research conducted nationwide research on bullying in Singapore in 2006. Data was collected from more than 4,000 students aged 7 to 16 years old and the results were surprising — around 94.7% responded that they had experienced bullying at least once. This finding helped break the silence of victims and became an insight for a new campaign.

The CABCY engaged agencies JWT and XM Asia to make a short film that brings a message to stop bullying. The innovative aspect is that the film gets shorter by a millisecond each time it is shared on Facebook and will disappear altogether after 100,000 shares. The effect is meant to represent ending the victims’ misery. At the time of writing the film has been shared over 33,000 times, reducing playing time by 33%. Once the film is wiped out, only the last frame will remain, which people can still share on Facebook, encouraging them to continue the conversation. This campaign provokes discussion of how bad the impact of bullying is for Singapore’s children and young people. It also reminds us that victims are often too afraid to share. The effectiveness of the campaign could be even greater if viewers are supported to take concrete actions as awareness is not enough to change behaviour.