@GoodnessBot
Monica Lewinsky
Issue 54 | March 2020
Agency
BBDO New York
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer, BBDO Worldwide David Lubars Creative Vice Chairman, BBDO Worldwide Greg Hahn Creative Directors Bianca Guimaraes, Roberto Danino Creative Director, Copywriter Gary du Toit Creative Director, Art Director Lance Vining Associate Creative Director, Copywriter Jim Connolly Junior Copywriters Sandi Spino, Georgia Murphy, Aaron Cary
Production Team
Agency Producers Director of Integrated Production David Rolfe Head of Innovation Vishal Dheiman Executive Producer, Digital Katie Young Interactive Producer Philip Peker Developers Nick Russo, John Cardoso Digital Resource Manager Jimmy McGee UX Clara SantaMaria Vargas
Other Credits
Agency Account Team Lindsey Cash, Carrie White PR Agency Dini von Mueffling Communications CEO Dini von Mueffling Account Director Daniel Lempert
Date
October 2019
Background
The internet is filled with cyberbullies and trolls. 41% of U.S. adults have personally experienced harassing or abusive behavior online, while another 28% admit to being abusive to a stranger online themselves.
In an attempt to give people the tools to fight this barrage of online abuse, antibullying activist Monica Lewinsky created the @GoodnessBot, designed to replace negativity with positivity in that most toxic of online environments: Twitter.
Idea
The @GoodnessBot gives users a simple, safe and effective way to stand up to their Twitter bullies–or intervene on someone’s behalf.
When people see a mean tweet, they just have to reply to it with “@GoodnessBot”, and the bot immediately goes to work. It seeks out negative nouns, verbs and adjectives, and replaces them with positive antonyms, inverting the meaning of the original tweet.
A tweet like “Fuck you, stupid bitch!” thus becomes “Bless you, savvy mermaid!”.
Results
The bot was launched on NBC’s “Today Show” and attracted 18 thousand followers in 54 countries in the first day alone. It notched 125 million Twitter impressions and received an overwhelmingly positive response - particularly from victims of cyberbullying. “I needed to hear this. I’ve been bullied for far too long,” tweeted one user. “Delighted to find out about the GoodnessBot today, ready to unleash on any trolls,” wrote another.
Our Thoughts
This idea was created in tandem with an interactive online film called “The Epidemic” (https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=OiyBGUmTip4) which tells the story of a teenager with a mystery virus that turns out to be depression brought on by bullying text messages.
It is shocking and it reached hundreds of millions of people.
But we chose to showcase the GoodnessBot instead because it is so simple, because it allows friends and family to show their support for those close to them when they get abused, and because it shames the trolls through humour. The ‘translations’ are delightfully oddball.
I for one salute the courage of Monica Lewinsky, a woman who was betrayed by her friends and abandoned by her boyfriend, threatened by the FBI and hounded by the media. Truly, one savvy mermaid.