They lied to us! ... And it worked.

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Hello, Creative Souls!

Let’s be honest.

Some ads earn attention. Others demand it. “A Love Song Written by a Murderer” did both. It grabbed you by the heart, then twisted the knife.

🎬 The Setup: A Familiar Formula, Masterfully Flipped

The video follows a formula advertisers know well:

90% problem, 10% solution. It begins tenderly.

A song. A voice. A man professing love. Soft visuals. Raw lyrics. Intimacy, unfiltered.

And then the twist hits. You learn the lyrics came from a letter written by a man who abused—and eventually murdered—the woman he claimed to love.

Suddenly, the song isn’t romantic.

It’s horrifying. And the ad? Unforgiving.

It ends with a message that punches through the screen: Never forgive abusers.

Even when they sound like poets. Especially then.

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🎯 Why It Worked

The campaign played with tension.

It understood the audience would follow the breadcrumbs of empathy—then be jolted when the trail led to violence.

It subverted our emotional reflexes. And that subversion made the message land harder.

No fancy CG. No visual trickery. Just music, mood, and misdirection.

This wasn’t “awareness.” This was emotional indictment.

🔍 But Then Came the Twist Behind the Twist

As investigative journalists soon discovered…The whole thing wasn’t exactly true.

• The artist? His fame was overstated.

• The letter? A stitched-together mashup from multiple sources.

• The story? Based on real violence, yes—but heavily dramatized for effect.

The murder was real. But the narrative wasn’t.

🧨 So… Can a Lie Still Be Called a Truth If It Wins Awards?

That’s the real question. Because yes—violence against women is urgent.

Yes—femicide is a global epidemic.

Yes—abusers often hide behind charm, romance, and words.

But by amplifying the drama with fiction, the campaign flirted with emotional manipulation. It didn’t just raise awareness. It also bent reality to serve the brief.

And in doing so, it opened a door we should be careful not to walk through casually:

If truth gets in the way of impact, should we still tell it?

THE GIST:

Advertising is storytelling.

But not all stories are ours to embellish.

When we take real trauma and dress it up for maximum tension, we risk turning human pain into creative ammunition.

We risk turning urgency into spectacle.

And when the applause fades, we’re left with this: Impact without integrity is still deception.

Figment is written by Abbhinav Kastura, a writer/producer who has spent a decade making impactful internet videos and Guru Nicketan, an advertising nerd, B2B Marketer, stand-up comedian, and a film buff.