Clippy Campaign: Difference between revisions

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In August 2025, YouTuber [[wikipedia:Louis_Rossmann|Louis Rossmann]] started a movement (tentatively named the '''Clippy Campaign'''), a grassroots [[wikipedia:Solidarity|solidarity]] visibility campaign wherein participants changed their profile pictures on social media platforms in protest of unethical practices by corporations. Users changed their profile pictures to a "Clippy", referring to an image of the "Clippit" avatar of [[wikipedia:Office_Assistant|Office Assistant]] as seen in Microsoft Office from 2000 to 2003.

==~~How it works~~==

==Campaign==

On August 7, 2025, YouTuber Louis Rossmann uploaded a video titled "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Dtmpe9qaQ Change your profile picture to clippy. I'm serious]" and encouraged his viewers to stand up against unethical practices of technology corporations (and companies in other industries) which violated consumer rights or otherwise proved detrimental to their paying customers. In the video, he suggested that members who join the movement could change their profile pictures on YouTube and other platforms to a Clippy, on the grounds that such an avatar was a fitting symbol, that avatars with a common theme would help participants recognize each other, and that the collective usage of the avatar in great numbers would raise questions among others and potentially draw attention to the movement.

Rossmann later uploaded a ~~follow-up~~ video titled "[https://youtu.be/SkL9vzW7nY0 You Changed Your Profile to Clippy: Now What? 📎📎📎]" to elaborate on the meaning of the movement for participants and outsiders, and to call participants to action, offering ways in which they could actively contribute to creating effective results that could counteract or make conspicuous the exploitative and dishonest business practices they are protesting. Rossmann stated in the video that the act of changing one's profile picture is not the goal of the movement, but a prerequisite for realizing bigger changes; it serves as a simple task that gets users invested in the movement and increases its visibility, so that even if a participant is not able to effectuate much change on their own, they can make people who are capable of more tangible influence aware of the movement and, utilize their assistance.

Rossmann later uploaded a clarifying video on the 12th titled "[https://youtu.be/SkL9vzW7nY0 You Changed Your Profile to Clippy: Now What? 📎📎📎]" to elaborate on the meaning of the movement for participants and outsiders, and to call participants to action, offering ways in which they could actively contribute to creating effective results that could counteract or make conspicuous the exploitative and dishonest business practices they are protesting. Rossmann stated in the video that the act of changing one's profile picture is not the goal of the movement, but a prerequisite for realizing bigger changes; it serves as a simple task that gets users invested in the movement and increases its visibility, so that even if a participant is not able to effectuate much change on their own, they can make people who are capable of more tangible influence aware of the movement and, utilize their assistance.

The scope of the campaign intersects with the general resistance to anti-ownership practices by companies that have become more common throughout the 2010s and early 2020s, such as denying paying customers the [[right to repair]] the products that they had purchased.

Rossmann uploaded a follow-up video on the 16th titled "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAgghxUw4kc Progress of clippy movement one week in]" in which he remarked on the rapid growth of the movement and thanked participants for actively working and making a difference and not simply changing one's profile picture without doing anything else.

==Why Clippy==

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 In August 2025, YouTuber [[wikipedia:Louis_Rossmann|Louis Rossmann]] started a movement (tentatively named the '''Clippy Campaign'''), a grassroots [[wikipedia:Solidarity|solidarity]] visibility campaign wherein participants changed their profile pictures on social media platforms in protest of unethical practices by corporations. Users changed their profile pictures to a "Clippy", referring to an image of the "Clippit" avatar of [[wikipedia:Office_Assistant|Office Assistant]] as seen in Microsoft Office from 2000 to 2003.
-==How it works==
+==Campaign==
 On August 7, 2025, YouTuber Louis Rossmann uploaded a video titled "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Dtmpe9qaQ Change your profile picture to clippy. I'm serious]" and encouraged his viewers to stand up against unethical practices of technology corporations (and companies in other industries) which violated consumer rights or otherwise proved detrimental to their paying customers. In the video, he suggested that members who join the movement could change their profile pictures on YouTube and other platforms to a Clippy, on the grounds that such an avatar was a fitting symbol, that avatars with a common theme would help participants recognize each other, and that the collective usage of the avatar in great numbers would raise questions among others and potentially draw attention to the movement.
-Rossmann later uploaded a follow-up video titled "[https://youtu.be/SkL9vzW7nY0 You Changed Your Profile to Clippy: Now What? 📎📎📎]" to elaborate on the meaning of the movement for participants and outsiders, and to call participants to action, offering ways in which they could actively contribute to creating effective results that could counteract or make conspicuous the exploitative and dishonest business practices they are protesting. Rossmann stated in the video that the act of changing one's profile picture is not the goal of the movement, but a prerequisite for realizing bigger changes; it serves as a simple task that gets users invested in the movement and increases its visibility, so that even if a participant is not able to effectuate much change on their own, they can make people who are capable of more tangible influence aware of the movement and, utilize their assistance.
+Rossmann later uploaded a clarifying video on the 12th titled "[https://youtu.be/SkL9vzW7nY0 You Changed Your Profile to Clippy: Now What? 📎📎📎]" to elaborate on the meaning of the movement for participants and outsiders, and to call participants to action, offering ways in which they could actively contribute to creating effective results that could counteract or make conspicuous the exploitative and dishonest business practices they are protesting. Rossmann stated in the video that the act of changing one's profile picture is not the goal of the movement, but a prerequisite for realizing bigger changes; it serves as a simple task that gets users invested in the movement and increases its visibility, so that even if a participant is not able to effectuate much change on their own, they can make people who are capable of more tangible influence aware of the movement and, utilize their assistance.
 The scope of the campaign intersects with the general resistance to anti-ownership practices by companies that have become more common throughout the 2010s and early 2020s, such as denying paying customers the [[right to repair]] the products that they had purchased.
+Rossmann uploaded a follow-up video on the 16th titled "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAgghxUw4kc Progress of clippy movement one week in]" in which he remarked on the rapid growth of the movement and thanked participants for actively working and making a difference and not simply changing one's profile picture without doing anything else.
 ==Why Clippy==