In Belgium movies and series are never dubbed but sub-titled instead. When people illegally download a film or series through torrent websites like the Pirate Bay, they need a matching .srt file for subtitles.

So on the biggest download platforms for subtitles we uploaded alternative versions. When internet pirates downloaded our files and watched their favourite shows they didn’t just read the translation. Out of the blue the subtitles confronted them with their illegal download behaviour. We even dropped some spoilers to really get their attention. Eventually we offered the poor souls a legal alternative: the best deals on series at criminally low prices.

Next to Game of Thrones we also altered subtitles from The Walking Dead, Vikings, Suits, Arrow, The Flash and The Big Bang Theory.

We carefully selected during which scenes we wanted our sub-titles to suddenly change into an anti-piracy message and wrote them to fit the situation. The adapted subtitles were uploaded on 3 major subtitle platforms. In total, 198 files were available to download on subscene.com, tvsubs.net and tvsubtitles.net. We also created multiple accounts to upload all the files to make sure we stayed under the radar of the platforms administrators. Uploading started on November 16 2017 and all subtitles are still online today. The adapted files were written in Dutch and in French to target all illegal downloaders in Belgium.

The adapted subtitles were downloaded over 26.000 times and counting.

Sales of DVD’s during our clever promo campaign increased with 17% in comparison to the same period last year.