SG National Crime Prevention Council called out for trivialising Depp-Heard trial in social trendjack

The National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) Singapore has been put on the hot seat for posting a meme in reference to the ongoing defamation suit between celebrities Amber Heard and Johnny Depp. According to The Straits Times (ST), NCPC's post on Facebook, which has been taken down, used a viral still image of Heard's face from the trial, taken during her testimony about Depp conducting a cavity search on her.

During the testimony, Heard recalled the incident and mentioned at a point that her dog had stepped on a bee, and had to be taken to a veterinarian. The testimony then went viral with many netizens creating one liners matching Heard saying "My dog stepped on a bee". Memes have since been posted on TikTok and trendjacking the situation, NCPC jumped on board with its one-liner "They want my OTP". The post also insinuated Heard to be a scammer and read, "Don't be fooled by those claiming to be who they're not, offering services they can't fulfil, or attempting to emotionally blackmail you for your money...Spot the signs, stop the crimes." The post also included the hashtag #spreadthewordonscams. 

According to ST, NCPC apologised for the post, saying that it had used the photo as it thought the expression captured how members of the public might react when they spot the various signs of scams. NCPC also added that it had not intended to demean or insult anyone. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has also reached out to NCPC for a statement.

Women’s rights and gender equality group AWARE has also posted a statement on its Facebook page saying it is “surprising” that a national body whose vision is to make Singapore safe and secure for all “would post something so implicitly hostile to domestic violence victims in the community”.

AWARE also said it is is glad National Crime Prevention Council took down its post that referenced the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial while ostensibly encouraging the public to be alert to scams. Commenting on the memes, the statement said the negative impact of the explosion of memes around the Depp-Heard trial—a defamation trial concerning allegations of domestic violence—is multifold. It said:

Treating the trial as comedic entertainment serves to normalise domestic violence, thereby dismissing and minimising genuine trauma.

"Violence is never really funny. Acting like it is erodes viewers’ empathy, forcing them to shut down the parts of themselves that might otherwise feel concern or sympathy for another human being,” said the statement.  It also said the spike in victim-blaming rhetoric is worrying.

In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE,  Lars Voedisch, managing director of PRecious Communications said this particular trial is more nuanced and complex than what any one image can represent.

“The moral of the story is that not every event is worthy of a meme. Especially turning situations of personal hurt into attention grabbing memes is just bad taste independent of the intention,” he said. He added:

Memes are about taking things out of context, simplifying or trivialising matters. It is just wrong to use a trial about abuse and defamation allegations as a source for marketing inspiration.

Pamela Tor Das, managing director, TEAM LEWIS Singapore said that despite the trial now trending online, the general advice is to clients is to veer away from trendjacking the Depp-Heard trial. "It has indeed been the subject of memes and jokes online, which are swaying public opinion even before a verdict been made," she said. She added that the public figure status of the parties involved has drawn much attention and if this was not the case, the trial would have gone unnoticed.

"Celebrities are humans too and whilst many may view the trial as a form of entertainment – this is their private life being exposed. The parties involved should be accorded the same level of empathy as we would towards a stranger in the same situation. Besides, there are many other topics for us to leverage trend jacking," she added.

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