Do you remember the 2011 viral “Take This Lollipop” horror film? Finally there is a sequel using deep fake tech, AI, all in a Zoom meeting horror setting to highlight today’s cybersecurity threats. It is worth checking out as we countdown to 2020 Halloween. The simulation works best on a desktop. Check it out at TakeThisLollipop.com.
About Take This Lollipop
In 2011, Jason Zada broke the internet with a Facebook-integrated short horror film called Take This Lollipop, which managed to frighten millions around the world to tears while showing them the real life dangers of the internet and social media in terms of data breaching and identity theft threats.
This month, Zada launched the sequel (TakeThisLollipop.com) – a Zoom-based short horror film experience that blends Deep Fakes, AI and the new normal we’re all experiencing – to bring into focus how identity theft has evolved immensely since 2011 into a much more complex and terrifying threat.
While taking in this experience, it is crucial you watch until the very end. You will know when it is over.
It’s an unpaid, original meant purely to have a little fun for Halloween, while also creating some awareness for what these technologies can be made to do, in a very shocking and mind bending way.
Fun fact: the Deep Fake art was done by the same guy who blended Jennifer Lawrence and Steve Buscemi! His name is BirbFakes.
Happy Halloween!
Lollipop (verb): The act of stealing someone’s identity and transforming into them.
In 2011, the internet was introduced to Take This Lollipop, a digital film experience that asked viewers to click a button that read “connect via Facebook”. The film started, and viewers quickly learned that the story’s protagonist, a terrifying stalker, was stalking them. See a short recap, here.
The first film experience played on the very real growing concern about data security that for years had been splashed endlessly across major news headlines. Lollipop codified a collective feeling about what could happen if personal data got into a stalker’s hands.
It’s 2020. We stopped caring about data, and still use the same password everywhere. Remember all those data breaches? We don’t hear about them anymore. AI and Deep Fakes are so powerful now. Presidents, celebrities and athletes have been deep faked.
It’s easier than ever to lose your identity, much more than just your account numbers.
The pandemic has only sped things up. Our homes are visible through video calls. There’s more footage of you talking, making faces and intonations. Is anyone recording those calls?
The first Lollipop warned people of the dangers of sharing personal information online. Now we want to show the world how someone can actually become you. Take This Lollipop 2 is a short film experience that plays on the new normal, ramping up a narrative that began nine years ago, a visceral ride rooted in the headlines that have whisked down our newsfeeds since 2011.