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WhatsApp expanded upon the “Doubt Delivered” consumer marketing campaign it kicked off in January to warn people about the dangers of unencrypted texts with “A New Era of Privacy,” a new campaign that debuted in the U.S. Monday.
Head of WhatsApp Will Cathcart said in a tweet, “We’re expanding the marketing campaign we started back in January to tell people in the U.S. about the importance of end-to-end encryption. 5.5 billion SMS messages are still sent daily in the U.S., but SMS messages aren’t secure.”
WhatsApp explained that many people still use SMS because it comes preinstalled on phones and due to the way Apple’s iMessage works, noting that changes in text colors on iPhones are due to SMS messages.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post, “WhatsApp is far more private and secure than iMessage, with end-to-end encryption that works across both iPhones and Android, including group chats. With WhatsApp, you can also set all new chats to disappear with the tap of a button. And last year, we introduced end-to-end encrypted backups, too—all of which iMessage still doesn’t have.”
WhatsApp head of marketing Vivian Odior said in a statement, “We set out to continue the efforts we started at the beginning of the year to elevate the privacy standards of the U.S. and establish WhatsApp as a superior and private messaging app. Across multiple channels of this campaign, we encourage our users to at the very least question the levels of privacy their current messaging option provides them and rally them to always message privately.”
Director Lauren Greenfield added, “Last year’s Doubt Delivered was my first foray into comedy and hidden camera and was an absolute blast, so I was thrilled to be invited back for the second iteration with BBDO San Francisco and WhatsApp. The premise was a documentary director’s dream: Can you make the absurd and hilarious realistic and believable? And be instructive about online privacy at the same time? Unsuspecting people walk into a pack-and-ship store and give their valuable letters and packages to be mailed. Our improv comedian, Jeff Howard, pulls out a messenger pigeon, attaches their precious cargo and launches it out the window. When mouths drop open in shock, Jeff makes the comparison between the lack of security of a courier pigeon and that of unencrypted mail. I loved having the opportunity to use humor to address the online privacy concerns that are such an important issue today.”