Glue creates personalised news spoofs for T-Mobile

Glue London has created an online viral campaign for T-Mobile, in the form of a website where T-Mobile users can submit embarrassing pictures of friends for insertion into a The Day Today-style spoof TV newsflash.

Mobile owners can choose from seven pre-recorded news stories – trouble makers, dancing crimes, shameful, fashion disasters, office humiliation, holiday havoc or posing plonkers – and upload pictures for inclusion in the reports.

They can then preview the clips and send them to friends’ mobiles.

A Glue spokeswoman says the web address is being seeded on a number of viral sites. It will also be supported with an online advertising campaign on FHM.com, Nuts.com, Lycos.com and getlippy.com.

The spokeswoman added that the site “was produced so that it does not in any way break the data protection act”. The storage on a computer system of personal information, including photographs, is covered by data protection rules, but the campaign’s creators say this issue is avoided because pictures used for the news flashes are deleted after sending.

Glue also addressed the issue of privacy and potential abuses of pictures taken on mobiles, notably in “happy slapping”, where people take pictures of assaults to send to friends as “trophies”.

All pictures sent to the T-Mobile newsflash site are checked by one of the site’s staff before being used.