How far is too far when it comes to dishonest marketing campaigns?

THIS Instagram account of one man’s perilous journey melted hearts everywhere and quickly went viral. But it was all a great big con.

Did you think this was real?

IT’S the supreme goal of countless marketing campaigns — to go viral. And some companies are using increasingly dubious tactics to achieve the coveted result.

The case of Abdou Diouf is the latest example of a campaign to use the power of social media to attract huge volumes of attention, regardless of the veracity of the content.

The campaign involved an Instagram account which purported to belong to Diouf, a Senegalese asylum seeker embarking on the perilous journey from northern Africa to Europe.

The account posted a string of photos at various stages of the journey, showing Diouf making his dash for a better life.

Caption: Two days walking. The guide says we cant stop. Or we will lose two thousands euros I pay for the boat to cross (sic).

Caption: Somewhere in the desert before Morocco. No food. Just juice and cookies. Fire for the cold

It was picked up by the Huffington Post over the weekend, and the Instagram account quickly went viral as people shared the amazing voyage. Within a week, almost 10,000 people had followed the account, with many commenters spurring him on, becoming emotionally invested in the picture-based story.

Among those who shared it was BBC journalist Jacques Peretti who tweeted the story saying: “This isn’t a picture of a muffin, this is real life.”

A 23 yr old man called Abdou instagrams his journey from Africa 2 Europe: this isn't a pic of a muffin it's real life http://t.co/ZxX2g6oBep

— Jacques Peretti (@JacquesPeretti) August 2, 2015

But the whole thing was a hoax to promote a Spanish film festival and th epictures have since been dubbed the “selfies that tricked the internet”.

“What they’ve done is leverage a political issue,” marketing specialist Melissa How told news.com.au.

“(In terms of brand sentiment) when the whole underlying principle is based on misleading people ... it can be a stupid strategy.”

Ms How is a digital marketing consultant and lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology and says while the tactic is risky, in a marketing sense, it was an “interesting social experiment”.

“What they’ve done a good job of is appealing to people’s empathy. With social campaigns such is this one, the more emotional the content the better.”

The account raises interesting questions for the mainstream media and those using social platforms.

The reaction to the deceptive nature of the campaign has been mixed, with some questioning the ethics of faking such emotive content for attention or financial gain. So how far is too far when it comes to dishonest marketing campaigns?

“This sort of thing happens all the time on social media, whether it’s for political purposes or social purposes,” said Daren Woolley.

Mr Woolley is the chair of the board of the Australian Marketing Institute and said the real issue in when the tactic is used for commercial gain and people are profiteering off the deception.

When that’s the case, “companies need to be prepared for the backlash.”

In Australia, such campaigns would likely be seen to be in breach of the Trade Practices Act and too risky for big companies to pull off. But he believes it is “definitely a trend in niche and cause-driven marketing” such as the wildly successful Koni campaign of 2012.

“You can always argue that any backlash was good for the cause,” he said.

Caption: Running to the future. We are in Morocco. The dream is closer. No looking back.

Caption: Finally the land os opportunities. We tired but happy. Very danger trip.

The Getxophoto festival was behind the fake account and hired two Spanish production companies to produce a series of videos and pictures to promote the event.

Its creators said the Abdou Diouf campaign was designed to provoke questions about how photos are used in society and who controls the narrative. They also seemed to leave little clues by the strange use of hashtags which accompanied the photos.

“We thought it was strong and powerful enough to make a statement and to raise questions,” one of the creators, Oriol Caba told Time.

“It won’t be surprising to us if we’re accused of trivialising this issue,” he added.

Regardless of their intentions, the strategy can be risky business for marketers and can leave their target audience feeling slighted.

Consumer psychologist Adam Ferrier says those carrying out like-minded campaigns need to weigh up three things: “How clever is the idea? How worthy is the thing you’re promoting? And how deceptive are you being?”

“In this case it seems like the ends didn’t justify the means,” he told news.com.au.

At first glance, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell fact from fiction. Difficult to know what is authentic and what is manufactured for ulterior purposes.

But amid all the chaos in the beautiful wild west of the internet, the moral of the story is don’t believe everything you read. Even if you really want to.