What is the Streisand Effect and 5 striking examples (8 photos)

Among the many social phenomena, the Streisand Effect is perhaps the most widespread. We're sure you've seen it in action many times, or perhaps you just weren't aware of it.

Let's find out what this effect is and recall some of its most striking examples.





What is the Streisand Effect?

The Streisand Effect is a social phenomenon that clearly demonstrates the unspoken rule: the harder you try to hide something, the sooner it will come to light. This is exactly what happened to Barbra Streisand. One day, she discovered a photo of her house on Pictopia.com. Or rather, it was depicted next to other similar houses on the coast. The photo was intended to demonstrate soil erosion on the beach, but Barbara wasn't keen on the publicity.



Singer Barbra Streisand, after whom the effect was named

The singer filed a $10 million lawsuit against photographer Kenneth Adelman, demanding that the photo be removed. She claimed the image violated her copyright. Incidentally, tens of thousands of similar photos were posted on the service, and this particular photo was downloaded only six times, two of which were by the singer's lawyer. The legal proceedings ended with Streisand's lawsuit being dismissed and the court ordering her to compensate the photographer of the infamous photo for its legal costs.





That very photo

But the most interesting thing is that after the case became public, the number of views of the photo increased dramatically. Within a month, the site had over 420,000 visitors. But without all this fuss, Streisand's house in the photo might have been completely overlooked. Just like the photo itself. Thus, the Streisand effect was born.

Now it encompasses all phenomena in which a person or group of people try to hide something, but instead, on the contrary, only leads to further dissemination of unwanted information. There are many similar cases, and here are the most striking examples.

Axl Rose and excess weight



Age and an excessive love of sweets take their toll. Thus, the handsome lead singer of Guns'n'Roses, who was the center of all the girls' crushes in his youth, has turned into a fat, flabby lout. And everything would have been fine if Axl hadn't started trying to fight public opinion. He demanded that Google remove all photos of him looking overweight.

Naturally, this led to photos of the chubby Axl being shared more and more often, turning them into funny memes.

Beyoncé and photos from the concert



For eight years now, the internet has been celebrating the day when Beyoncé's lawyer "deleted" her photos from the internet. As you can tell from the photo above, he did so unsuccessfully. It all started with the singer's performance at the Super Bowl in 2013. Among the many photos of Beyoncé on stage, there were about five that were extremely unflattering. And, again, the celebrity might have escaped disaster if her publicist hadn't tried to get rid of the photos.

She wrote a letter to BuzzFeed, which published the series of photos, demanding that they remove all the unflattering shots. She even specified which ones. Instead, BuzzFeed compiled a separate collection of Beyoncé's unfortunate photos and attached the PR woman's email. The Streisand effect was immediate—that same day, the star's unfortunate photos were all over the world.

Ralph Lauren and Photoshop



It's no secret that fashion brands use Photoshop, and not always successfully. But a 2009 Ralph Lauren ad arguably became the epitome of inept retouching. The model's waist in the photo was too narrow and unnatural, making her head look enormous and disproportionate.

The photo soon sparked a wave of public outrage, leading Ralph Lauren to personally apologize for "distorting the female body." Thus, by trying to conceal minor flaws that would hardly be noticed, the brand ran into major problems.

Samsung and Explosive Smartphones



Several years ago, a YouTube user named Ghostlyrich posted a video online in which he claimed his Samsung smartphone had exploded. Initially, the video wasn't particularly popular—you never know what people might say. But when the company tried to hush it up, the situation changed dramatically.

After Samsung approached him about making a "normal video" in exchange for a new smartphone, Ghostlyrich recorded another video. In it, he attacked the company and discussed the safety of its products. The video soon went viral, and a ton of other stories about exploding smartphones appeared online.

The Church of Scientology and Tom Cruise



Everyone knows that Tom Cruise is an open follower of the Church of Scientology. He once spoke at length about the organization in an interview. This video was subsequently widely circulated in an attempt to draw public attention to the religion. It did... well, not in the intended way. Many criticized both the actor and the church itself, prompting attempts to hastily remove the video.

Naturally, these attempts did not produce the desired result. Instead, the Streisand effect took hold again. The video went viral and even sparked the creation of Project Chanology, an organization that targets the Church of Scientology.