As Expected, "Slavery The Game" Isn't Real

Apparently, the trailer was supposed to raise slavery awareness. *Smack forehead*

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Complex Original

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Earlier this week, we reported on the controversial trailer for Slavery the Game, which—as expected—turns out to be a viral video marketing ploy.  Surprisingly, the folks that put the campaign together are trying to raise awareness for the history of slavery and the fact that it indeed still exists today.  Dutch public broadcaster NTR is responsible for the fictional game trailer and is promoting a TV series entitled “De Slavernij” (Dutch for “slavery”), which explores the European and Dutch involvement in trans-Atlantic slavery.  

While the viral video did its job in drumming up publicity, with over 400,000 YouTube views, it’s hard to believe that riling people up was done in the name of good-intentioned education, as NTR claims by stating, “It is a good thing to see a trailer like this leads to this amount of controversy.  It really shows how people are still truly concerned about slavery.”  You can read NTR’s press release about the marketing campaign and there’s also an interview with one of the NTR researchers you can peruse.  Was this a genius way to drum up awareness of slavery or do you feel it did more harm than good?  What do you think?   

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