THE DUTCH DISCUSS: “WHO ARE YOU DOING IT FOR, ANYWAY?”

How far are people willing to go for a ‘perfect’ life on social media? That is what social experiment
‘The Good Life Agency’ should reveal. The Good Life Agency is a non-existing company that supposedly offers anything you need to fake an amazing life: expensive cars, likes from celebrities on your social media channels, the perfect holiday and attractive friends posing with you in pictures. ‘Success is what you show, not what you have.’

The rat race makes us unhappy. Every once in a while it helps to stop and ask ourselves: ‘Who am I doing all of this for?’ Go by your own desires, listen to what it is you truly want, and remain true to yourself. Imperfections and failures are part of that. We’re so busy looking happy, we forget to actually be happy.

Bas van Berkestijn
Then board member SIRE

The results of the social experiment and the massive media attention from the media formed the first step towards the actual campaign, that made people aware of how unrealistic it is to strive for a ‘perfect’ life. Who are you doing that for anyway?

Prior to the experiment, research commissioned by SIRE showed that 63% of Dutch people think that people are trying to make their life look better than it actually is. Only 16% admit to doing this themselves. As it turned out, over a third of all Dutch people are willing to consider raising their social status with help of paid services. This social experiment was a test that put that need into practice.

• 35% of Dutch people says it’s possible to lead a perfect, happy life
• 20% makes adjustments to fit in
• 25% says they often raise the bar too high in order to be successful
• 48% of young people between 16 and 24 explicitly compare and mirror themselves to others

We launched The Good Life Agency with a press release and a buzzing video that reached 33 million people. The ‘ company’  was a trending topic in the media. The website had over 100,000 hits in a few days, and more than 400 consumers actually wanted to buy services and products. Men applied mostly to services like ‘endorsing’, ‘perfect dinner’ and ‘night out’. Women were mostly interested in the ‘better you’ Photoshop service.

After three days, we revealed that The Good Life Agency was a social experiment, and launched the SIRE campaign ‘Who are you doing this for anyway?’ Research done after the campaign showed that this made the Dutch public more aware of their behaviour on social media.