An image of a
pregnant Donald Trump being held lovingly by Vladimir Putin has gone viral
after it was projected onto a succession of buildings across Brooklyn and
Manhattan.
The startling
image - accompanied by the hashtag #lovethroughhate - caught the imagination of
New Yorkers after it began appearing on Valentine's Day.
But what
appears to be a satirical illustration is actually an ad campaign for a new
dating app that links people together through shared hatreds.
The image
first appeared on Valentine's Day at the corner of West 14th Street and 8th
Avenue, the borderline between two districts: Greenwich Village and the
fashionable gay hub of Chelsea.
It then popped
up again that evening at the corner of Wythe Avenue and North 6th Street in
Brooklyn, and returned to Chelsea on Wednesday, when it was projected onto the
Apple store.
Predictably,
New York's army of cynics loved the stunt, taking to Twitter to share photos of
the ad and joke around about its content.
And of course,
many were happy to make sure the president was aware of the pop-up
installation.
'What a warm
and lovely embrace!' remarked Dustin Osterman. '@realDonaldTrump you're
glowing!'
'Putin didn't
pull out of Crimea either,' joked Sir Pennypacker.
And a user
named Mercedes had a more positive take on the stunt: 'Through humour, hate can
turn into love.'
The image
clearly references the ongoing revelations about links between Trump's election
aides and the Russian government, which also hacked and leaked Democratic Party
emails during the election.
But in fact
there was no grand political message behind the project - the whole thing was
designed to promote Hater, a new dating app for the bile-fueled and furious.
The app,
created by Goldman Sachs employee-turned-comedian Brendan Alper, works like
Tinder - but instead of swiping people, you're swiping concepts.
What do you
think of building the wall, the app asks? Or Cargo shorts? Or avocados?
Users swipe
down to hate, up to love, left to dislike or right to like, and the app then
matches them up with similarly angry folks nearby.
It's been in
trial in New York since December, writes Mashable, and the number-one most
hated topic is, as you might expect from the ultra-liberal city, the recent
presidential election.
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