What happens when ads don't prove what you want them to?

BETC created a fake Instagram account featuring an it girl Louise Delage who was going all over Europe, having fun with drink in hand. Or bottle. Until finally, they pulled the rug and let us know Louise Delage is an alcoholic. And that sometimes we don't realize the people closest to us have problems with alcohol and we may not even see it. Only problem with this idea is. that wasn't the case. More than a few comments throughout her posts lead me to believe people did indeed notice she had a drinking problem. Mostly because she has a drink or bottle in almost every single shot and it looks too staged to be real. The other thing was from her first post to the end it was only three weeks.

Some of the comments which I noticed came before their big reveal, not after, are quite telling. Like this one which reads: TOUJOURS AVEC DE LALCOOL, C PAS POSSIBLE which translated roughly means "YOU ALWAYS HAVE ALCOHOL THIS ISN'T POSSIBLE." In another back and forth in english, someone says "can't wait to see what will happen to you girl in the coming weeks," and a person answers "she will be joining AA." Yet another person asks on a different post, "Do you ever drink water?" Someone in French again points out she drinks in all the photos (tu bois sur toute les photos, non?) in yet another post one and this was a day before the film reveal above. So the comments actually disproved their concept.

If you click on the links and you don't see those responses, I've noticed they keep uh, disappearing. You can see how I took a screenshot of one displaying seven comments, but when I counted only five are visible. Then when I went back, it said five. But I took the liberty of screen dumping a few before they disappeared or got hidden though.

As a campaign it didn't receive that many comments, but after a while people certainly noticed. Take for instance one of the one example where someone asks in french cherchez l'erreur sur ce compte Instagram ) spot the error in this account" and another answers " Insta d'alcoolique." Another commenter hashtags #alcoolique, And again, this was before they pulled the rug on it.
It might have helped it the photos didn't look so staged, or if Louise had actually engaged with someone, anyone who engaged with her. I guess you can't expect much from a three week campaign though. But again it just goes to show you, people are more observant than you think. Especially online.