Monica Lewinsky:
In Real Life

As a society, we tend to show each other empathy when we're face-to-face. But online, a culture of cruelty has become the new normal. Today, 47% of Americans have experienced some form of online abuse as a result. But what has become acceptable online is something we would never accept in real life. So we asked ourselves, how can we get people to change this behavior?

"In Real Life" is an anti-bullying PSA brought to you by anti-bullying activist Monica Lewinsky and a coalition of 10 anti-bullying non-profits. To draw attention to the difference between how people behave online versus in real life, we created a social experiment. We found hateful comments written by real people on social media and got actors to reenact them on the street. Every time a hateful scenario was reenacted, there was always a stranger that stepped in to defend the person being bullied. While the bullies and their targets were actors, the people who intervened had no idea they were being filmed. The PSA urged people to rethink their own actions online and to #ClickWithCompassion.

The PSA kicked off National Bullying Prevention Month and within a month it was viewed over 23 million times. On social media, over 53 million people engaged with the PSA.The film also trended on YouTube the week that it launched and generated over 1 billion impressions. Additionally, the campaign was covered in over 80 outlets, including the New York Times, CBS, Daily Mail, and The Guardian. The press release was picked up 222 times, reaching an audience of more than 84 million people. But more significantly, schools are using the film as a tool to educate students about bullying.