Clippy Campaign: Difference between revisions

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In August 2025, YouTuber {{Wplink|Louis Rossmann}} started a grassroots {{Wplink|solidarity}} visibility campaign (tentatively named the '''Clippy Campaign'''), wherein participants changed their profile pictures on social media platforms in protest of unethical practices by corporations across industries. 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 1997 to 2003.

==Purpose==

In recent years, technology companies have been engaging in unethical forms of conduct such as mining personal data to train artificial intelligence without the person's consent, selling personal data to data brokers which are used in invasive advertising, forcing planned obsolescence on products and services where it makes no sense for the user, installing ransomware on devices without the owner's consent, and censoring views of users which they object to. Consumer electronics repair store owner Louis Rossmann uploaded a series of videos on his YouTube channel encouraging his viewers to stand up against these practices.

In the first such video uploaded by Rossmann, he asks viewers to change their profile pictures on their social networking accounts to a picture of a "Clippy" as a form of protest and to provide a way of identifying themselves as a member of the movement. In the following weeks, Clippy profile pictures began flooding YouTube comments sections and started to spread to other sites and applications.

Rossmann has subsequently released further videos addressing the accomplishments that participants have made, the current progress made in different areas, and what members can continue to do in the future to protect people from further overreach by these companies, and [[Bose_SoundTouch_end_of_life_treatment|even reverse them]]. His channel has a long history of videos which point out a great number of incidents in which companies have mistreated paying customers, and they have provided members of the movement with valuable information and motivation to change things for the better. Rossmann emphasizes the importance of many people working together, and has pointed out that the Clippy campaign has been much more successful than he has been on his own.<ref name="do the work 2026">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-QDbZZYIxk |title=DO THE WORK! |date=4 Feb 2026}}</ref>

==Campaign origins==

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 In August 2025, YouTuber {{Wplink|Louis Rossmann}} started a grassroots {{Wplink|solidarity}} visibility campaign (tentatively named the '''Clippy Campaign'''),  wherein participants changed their profile pictures on social media platforms in protest of unethical practices by corporations across industries. 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 1997 to 2003.
+==Purpose==
+In recent years, technology companies have been engaging in unethical forms of conduct such as mining personal data to train artificial intelligence without the person's consent, selling personal data to data brokers which are used in invasive advertising, forcing planned obsolescence on products and services where it makes no sense for the user, installing ransomware on devices without the owner's consent, and censoring views of users which they object to. Consumer electronics repair store owner Louis Rossmann uploaded a series of videos on his YouTube channel encouraging his viewers to stand up against these practices.
+In the first such video uploaded by Rossmann, he asks viewers to change their profile pictures on their social networking accounts to a picture of a "Clippy" as a form of protest and to provide a way of identifying themselves as a member of the movement. In the following weeks, Clippy profile pictures began flooding YouTube comments sections and started to spread to other sites and applications.
+Rossmann has subsequently released further videos addressing the accomplishments that participants have made, the current progress made in different areas, and what members can continue to do in the future to protect people from further overreach by these companies, and [[Bose_SoundTouch_end_of_life_treatment|even reverse them]]. His channel has a long history of videos which point out a great number of incidents in which companies have mistreated paying customers, and they have provided members of the movement with valuable information and motivation to change things for the better. Rossmann emphasizes the importance of many people working together, and has pointed out that the Clippy campaign has been much more successful than he has been on his own.<ref name="do the work 2026">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-QDbZZYIxk |title=DO THE WORK! |date=4 Feb 2026}}</ref>
 ==Campaign origins==