Blue or Gold? #THEDRESS
The Dress
Do you still remember the dress?
Someday last year I opened my Facebook app and almost all the posts on the news feed were this photo — “The Dress”. My first reaction was like, “Well it’s just a white and gold dress. What’s special about it?”. After reviewing several posts I realized not all the people think it’s a white and gold dress.
“The Dress” was posted by Caitlin McNeil, who saw “the dress” photo from her friends and thought it was a white and gold dress. She saw the dress “obviously blue and black” in real life, and reposted the photo to ask the questions to her followers. On the same day, it went viral and led to further public discussion surrounding the image. “The Dress” is mentioned more than 10 million tweets within a week and covered by other social and mainstream media such as CNN, The Washington, New York Business Journal etc.
Celebrities was talking about “The Dress” too.
Why “The Dress” went viral?
Apparently Caitlin did not set a goal or audience strategy (I guess so) for this photo, so why ‘the dress” went viral without any “strategy” while many companies are spending so much money and time to figure out how to make their contents go viral? Since there’s clearly so social media strategy, I would like to focus on why people “share” the photo:
- “This is easy!” — Yes, the photo is “simply” just a dress and it is “easy to identify” the color of dress. All you have to do is see the dress and tell whether it’s gold&white or black&blue. It’s just that simple.
- “It is obvious!” — We cannot lie about what we really see and it seems like there is an “obvious” answer, “This is definitely white&gold!” Well, “obviously” many people think it is “absolutely” blue&black.
- “I know why!” — And we start to argue why it should be white&gold or blue&black. We want to prove we are right and explain the mystery behind.
What “The Dress” teaches us?
Using what I learned from “Berger’s STEPPS” last wednesday, I would say “The Dress” meets three criteria:
- Trigger: “The Dress” triggers the dress color we might argue with our friends last time, or something we learn in the science class back in high schools.
- Public: “Taylor Swift and Ellen DeGeneres mentioned about the dress, so it must be something good.” We need social proof, and we want to be part of this mystery.
- Practical Value + Stories: Well discussing the color of dress itself does not have any practical value. It is just a “simple story” to debate across the social media. However, why people seeing different colors has its scientific value, and we want to share the answer that we believe is the truth.
Who win? White & Gold or Black & Blue?
Here is the answer.
