Little baby August needn’t rely on a YouTube video to track down his father as he is just an actor in a tourism video
A video uploaded to the internet by a Danish woman claiming to be tracking down the father of her baby has been seen almost a million times in four days – an effective marketing tool says the tourism agency behind the fake appeal.
On video-sharing website YouTube, ‘Danish Karen’ holds little baby August and tells the viewer how she is searching for his father, whom she can’t remember after a one night stand in Copenhagen.
The video also has an accompanying website with ‘personal’ photos of the mother and child. Both the website and video garnered a lot of international attention, being highlighted on Dutch news programmes among others.
When it was initially uploaded, thousands of comments flooded in. Many described the mother as an irresponsible young woman, while others praised her for her bravery and living up to her responsibilities.
However, it quickly emerged that tourism agency VisitDenmark was behind the heart-tugging appeal and Karen was being portrayed by Danish actress Ditte Arnth Jørgensen. The 27-year-old actress has yet to comment on her latest role because of the media controversy surrounding it.
The real identity of baby August and his parents has not been revealed.
Dorte Kiilerich of VisitDenmark described the video as the ‘most effective thing we have ever done to market Denmark’.
Kiilerich told TV2 News that Denmark is an unknown entity in the global market and by producing the video they had shown the country was a place where women live in a free society, able to make their own choices.
According to the tourism executive she didn’t think that viewers were being tricked by the video.
‘This is a good, sweet and really harmless story and it’s not unusual to sell false stories when you communicate,’ Kiilerich said.
