As a counterattack against rampant online bullying, we created a world on Facebook where being nice was cool and girls could stand up and say “Mean Stinks!” We asked girls to “be nice behind someone’s back” by using our Good Graffiti tool to post nice public messages about others. We also encouraged girls to post apology videos to send to those they might have hurt in the past. We extended our anti-bullying blitz into other media. Whenever bullying content appeared in magazines or online, we placed our message featuring Glee’s Amber Riley, herself a victim and advocate for anti-bullying efforts, next to the article. With Amber as our voice, we even inspired weekly celebrity gossip magazines to aggregate bullying commentary as content features in conjunction with our message.

The Secret Mean Stinks Facebook page has over 350,000 'likes'—and growing. Secret as a brand has over 1.4 million fans. July through December of 2011, the Mean Stinks fan-base enjoyed a 107% increase. Apologies, video and text, were viewed over 40,000 times. Teen-targeted placements broke through: 82% of readers of Seventeen’s ‘Confidence Confidential’ recalled the Mean Stinks message; 48% reported a “purchase-related action” following exposure. Digital media placements sparked an 8.4 percentage point increase in desire to seek Secret in store—a 14-point increase among 13-20 year-olds. Brand loyalty is now double any other female deodorant in the market.