BeReal is a new social media that claims to be more authentic than exisiting platforms (Facebook, Instagram, etc). At a synchronized time everyday, every user on the app gets a notification telling them it’s “Time to BeReal.” Users have 2 minutes to post what they’re doing at the same time the rest of their friends are.

It’s a novel idea. You don’t get to pick when you post. However, the app will ruin real life moments. I’ve had the exact scenario happen too many times:

  1. I am enjoying a meal/walk/hang out with a group of friends
  2. Everyone gets a BeReal notification
  3. People exclaim “thank GOD i got this notification now.” People pose and try to get in each other’s photo
  4. Everyone waits on their phone to check what other people are doing

A group of friends hanging out will get sucked out of real life and into this app to compare to what other people are doing. It’s an insidious nuance that I’m sure the original developers didn’t intend for.

In my advertisement, I tried to capture this type of moment. Three friends are on a hike at a beautiful waterfall. They get their BeReal notification and are sucked into the app (and out of the beautiful nature). The friends are AI generated to show the distortion of the app. No matter how “real” the platform may claim to be, users will still show a polished, distorted version of themselves.

The advertisement reads left to right, with the friends hunched over their phone at the end, concluding that BeReal will actually ruin real life moments at the expense of trying to look “authentic” to pseudo-friends online.