Fact-Check: Edited Video Falsely Shared as VIP Skybags Ad Promoting ‘Love Jihad'
The viral video is an edited one which combines an Instagram reel by two actors and a clip from a Skybags' ad.
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A video showing a Hindu woman and a Muslim man as a couple, followed by visuals of luggage by the company VIP Skybags has gone viral on social media.
The claim: Users are sharing the video with the claim that it shows an advertisement by Skybags, which promotes 'love jihad' in Kerala.
'Love Jihad' is a term popularised by the right wing, which refers to the alleged campaign of Muslims entrapping Hindu girls for religious conversion.
The Quint received a query for this video's verification on its WhatsApp tipline.
(Archives of more claims on social media can be seen here, here and here.)
But...?: The claim is false. The viral video is a combination of two different clips.
The first shows a video featuring actors Sumi Rashik and Vishnu K Vijayan with the song 'Vathikkalu Vellaripravu' from the Malayalam film Sufiyum Sujatayum (2020).
The second part of the video shows a clip from a 2015 VIP Skybags ad with Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan.
How did we find out?: Using InVID, we divided the video into multiple keyframes and ran a reverse image search along with relevant keywords on them.
This led us to an article by Free Press Journal which mentioned that Skybags' parent company VIP had issued a clarification that the viral advertisement being attributed was "fake" amid calls to boycott the company.
The report carried screenshots of the viral video.
(Source: Free Press Journal/Screenshot)
The report identified the man in the video as actor Vishnu Vijayan and carried a video shared by one Sumi Rashik.
Taking a cue from this, we looked for the actors' accounts on social media.
On Instagram, we came across Vishu Vijayan's account which showed several photographs of him and his co-actor from the viral video.
(Note: Swipe to view all photos.)
The photos were shared in collaboration with one Sumi Rashik's account.
The photo showed the same actors as seen in the viral video.
The actors were seen in similar outfits as the one they wore in the viral video.
The photos show Vishnu Vijayan and Sumi Rashik.
These photos were shared in collaboration with Sumi Rashik's Instagram profile.
We then went through the actor's account and found a longer and clearer version of the viral video.
There was no Skybags clip at the end of this video.
This video was filmed on the song 'Vathikkalu Vellaripravu' from the Malayalam film Sufiyum Sujatayum (2020).
What about the Skybags clip?: We went through Skybags' YouTube channel to look at their advertisements over the years.
Towards the end of one of their videos shared in October 2015 which featured Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan.
The part of this ad used in the viral video starts at the 39-seconds mark.
Skybags calls the ad "fake": Skybags, on their Twitter account, shared a statement by their parent company VIP which called the video "a fake, malicious and mischievous advertisement."
It further stated that the creator of the ad had "unlawfully" used VIP's and Skybags' brand names in an attempt to "tarnish" their images, clarifying that they had no connection to the ad's creator.
The company issued an official statement amid calls to boycott their product.
(Source: VIP/Screenshot)
VIP's Twitter account shared the same statement.
Where did the viral video come from?: We noticed a watermark with the text 'Puffington Ghost' on the video.
The watermark reads 'Puffington Ghost'.
(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)
Taking a cue from this, we looked for their presence on social media.
On Twitter, we came across a user reply under a tweet with the viral claim mentioning that they had tracked the video down to a Facebook page called puffington ghost.
The user mentioned that the video was shared by a Facebook page called puffington ghost.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
We came across another tweet mentioning 'puffington ghost' in connection to the viral video.
This tweet carried the url for Puffington Ghost's Facebook page, which is now inactive.
A search for the page on archive.is showed the the Facebook page's bio mentioned that it was a 'satire/parody' page.
The page called itself a satire/parody page.
(Source: Archive.is/Altered by The Quint)
We scrolled through the archived page and saw that lately, it had shared derogatory posts related to the gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and the Muslim community.
Conclusion: Two unrelated videos were edited together claiming to show an ad by Skybags and social media users accused the brand of promoting 'love jihad' in Kerala.
(With inputs from Rujuta Thete.)
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