Fact Check

Alligator Eats Girl Taking Photograph?

Let's take a closer look.

Published April 20, 2015

Claim:
Video shows a woman getting eaten by an alligator while posing for a photograph along a riverbank.

A video purportedly showing a woman being attacked by an alligator while posing for a photograph along a riverbank has been circulating on the Internet since 2012.

The video does not show a real alligator attack, however: it's merely a commercial for Preview magazine.

When the video was originally uploaded to YouTube, it featured a few extra seconds of footage containing the tagline "choose your bag wisely," the hashtag #IMAPreviewGirl, and a link to Preview's web site. These aspects clearly identified the video as an advertisement; but (as is typical with such "reality" commercials) they were trimmed off by those who subsequently reposted it, making it difficult for viewers to recognize the clip as a commercial.

Although several versions of this video currently circulating on the Internet (many lacking the final seconds of the original video) claim to depict a real alligator attack, Preview has made it clear that this clip ("How Not to Instagram") is just a commercial. The magazine has listed the full creative team behind the clip on their web site, and the viral video has won a few advertising awards:

Preview Magazine's viral YouTube video just reached new heights, not only was it our most viewed (and yes, funniest!) video to date, it is now award-winning as well! How Not to Instagram was a finalist in two categories for The Kidlat Awards: Shareable Content and Online Film. And in the end, the video collaboration between Preview and Blackpencil Manila took home the Bronze for Online Film.

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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