Real Nigerian prince addresses those email scams in viral Vaseline ad

Anyone with an email address has probably been contacted by a supposed Nigerian prince at some point. The spam messages offering riches from air in exchange for your bank details were once so widespread that they became a running joke.

Fortunately, most people probably now know that such messages don't come from genuine royalty. But are you as quick when it comes to identifying a fake physical product? A real Nigerian prince is putting people to the test in a campaign for skincare brand Vaseline that's gone viral online.

Chris Okagbue is a Nigerian actor and model, but he's also a member of the Onitsha royal family of Anambra State. As a brand ambassador for Vaseline Nigeria, he's been making a series of posts on social media comparing spam emails supposedly sent in his name with fake Vaseline products, which are apparently becoming a problem.

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When something fake is repeated often enough, people start to question the real version too, the prince warns, before highlighting a new QR system developed by Vaseline to help customers identify if a product is real.

The Instagram post above has already been viewed almost two million times and received 177K likes. The hundreds of positive comments show how a campaign that taps into a familiar experience in a surprising way can really strike a chord with consumers.

Joe Foley
Freelance journalist and editor

Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.

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