When I was browsing for a new topic, I happened to see this blog, Thea Bryllup’s Blog, a special Norway girl.
My attention was caught by a big “slogan” at the home page: “Stop Bryllupet”. What does it mean? So I did a bit of research and before we talk about any Digital Marketing, let me tell you a story.
Thea Bryllup, a beautiful 12 year old girl from Norway is blogging about the most important event in her life: getting married! There is no doubt that this would be the 1st teen bride in Norway, who is getting married in 1 month. “On Saturday, this little girl will walk down the aisle. At the altar, she will meet her 37-year-old husband-to-be. Your eyes aren’t betraying you – this bride doesn’t just look young for her age: Thea is Norway’s first ever child bride. And she’s just 12-years-old” – wrote graziadaily.co.uk
Since this blog is open to share her personal life moments and preparation for the wedding in this coming Saturday, her blog became one of the most read blogs in Norway and goes viral within a month. Thousand discussions, for and against this marriage has been mentioned in social media and spreading out. Some people even tried to stop the wedding. Some negative and emotional comments raised. And do you know this Saturday, October 11, her wedding day, is also the UN’s International Day of the Girl? Thea is just one of million girls who have been forced to arrange the marriages. 39,000 girls, one every two second, are robbed their childhood by arranged “I do” everyday. By sharing the Thea’s story on this blog, social media community is sharing the message to the world: Girls not Bride. Mabel van Oranje, Board Chair of “Girls Not Brides” campaign, spoke on Norwegian NGOs, “Our goal is to end child marriage in one generation. If we can keep this generation of girls out of marriage before age 18, we can be pretty sure that they will make sure that their daughters do not marry young either”.
Efficiency by using digital marketing campaign, United Nation can raise awareness for an international message like “Girls not Brides”, to encourage people to “digital attend” to stop the child marriage issue and raising their voices to help young girls around the world.
Please leave your comment below to share your thought about this campaign and actively involved in saving young girls from arranged marriages.
Sources:
http://www.graziadaily.co.uk/conversation/opinion/the-truth-about-norways-first-child-bride
http://www.boredpanda.com/arranges-norways-first-child-wedding-to-prevent-others-from-happening/
SCARLET FILE 
That is a bit disturbing to be honest. I read about forced marriage and child brides, and I know that this happens all over the world, but mostly in under develop or developing countries, e.g. Africa, Afghanistan, India. I’m really surprise that this is happening in Norway, in Europe. I think it’s good for her to bring awareness to this issue. I think the use of blog, of sharing the personal experience, create that connection to readers, which I think is an important key in why this blog got so popular. A lot what happened with child brides is that they don’t have the medium or power to gain awareness over this issue. I think this is what happened to most issues and non-for-profit or charity organisations. Stories about personal experience of people experiencing it is more powerful, but most of the time the people experiencing it doesn’t have the power and tools to share their story and make the impact needed
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Thanks for your comment Patricia. Yes, I agree that most of the time, child marriages take place in developing countries, but it is interesting that this case happening in Norway? Is that how they caught our attention easily? 🙂 I guess this blog post is spreading out from original country, Norway, for a reason. I guess something “not normal” in a European country would raise more action to against it than a “normal norm” in developing countries.
In addition, using personal experiences or personal stories would bring out sympathathy, sharing mood and actively involvements from audiences than a general message with no evidence or real data. So what they are doing is pulling instead of pushing audiences to their campaign and this is much more powerful method. As we are UN’s customers, do you feel excited to see what will happen on the blog this Saturday? Do you feel upset and against this marriage and would do what you can to stop it? If you do feel so and expressing your feelings on social media, I think this campaign is successful.
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She seems like a happy young girl who has a full life ahead of her. Then came the man who stood behind her – like a dark gray cloud taking all the youthful sunshine away. Poor girl, did she get married in the end? I would love to be updated on this piece of news… Thanks to digital media, her voice was heard and millions around the world are helping her. But I can’t imagine those in developing countries who are suffering the same fate and their voices are still unheard… I pray for these girls to be alright whatever outcome that may fall upon them.
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Thanks for your comment Elizabeth! Your thoughts and your sympathy proved that this campaign is successful! You and other people against this Child Marriged Issue and help to spread out the message around the world. Young girls in developing countries need help! Even we can’t directly help them, I believe many voices could do something! Thanks for digital platforms and social media help us to help other people in need.
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uhm….it not real. It’s an awareness campaign so no she didn’t get married.
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