An ad encouragaing organ donation in China is being shared with a false claim that it is a real incident in Singapore where an infant recognised its deceased mother's heartbeat.
The video shows several people trying to soothe an insconsolable baby till a man in a black t-shirt holds the baby and the baby upon hearing his heartbeat stops crying. The baby's mother has lost her life during childbirth, and her heart was then donated to the man in the black t-shirt. The video indicates that the baby recognises this, and is soothed by its mother's heartbeat, even when the heart is in a different body.
The text with the explains the meaning of the ad, while claiming that it is a real incident from Singapore. The caption states, "This was a clip taken of a child whose mother died while giving birth. The heart of the woman was donated to the person wearing a black shirt. Pl. watch the reaction of the child when the person wearing the black shirt holds the child. The child can recognise the heart beat of the mother. This video was recorded in Singapore and immediately went viral. Priceless clip. You might have seen such videos. But it is still amazing. However, I believe that recognition of mother's heart beats....is feminism to emphasize motherhood. There is no scientific basis for such understanding by infants. However, we may say that infant is responsive equally to its fatherhood. (sic)"
Click here to view the post.
Click here to view the post.
BOOM also received the same claim on its WhatsApp tipline asking to verify the video.
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the video is not a real incident and is actually a public service advertisement broadcasted by the China Central Television or CCTV, a Chinese media house.
We translated the text seen in the video and found that it is Mandarin and translates to, "Love Makes the Heart Beat. Organ Donation". Below it, CCTV's logo appears with the text "Advertising Management Center"
Taking a hint from this, we ran a keyword search found that the official handle of CCTV had uploaded the same video on Facebook on 13 June, 2017.
This confirmed that the video is not from Singapore, as the viral message claimed.
Further, we ran a specific keyword search for 'CCTV Advertising Management Center' and 'Organ donation heartbeat', and found the LinkedIn profile of Wu Qiubin, a Chinese media professional.
Qiubin had shared a post about how he won the ROI 2016 Silver Award for the same video when he worked at Gwantsi Productions as a film producer.
We then checked the website of Gwantsi Productions, also known as Guanchi, and the website of Roi Festival.
On Gwantsi Productions' website, we found that the same video is listed under the section 'Public Welfare Film and Television'.
The ROI Festival website gives more details about the same in its "previous awards" section and found that the commercial bagged a silver in 2017.
Click here to view.
Further description of the commercial explains that it is advertised by CCTV Advertising Management Center, and is produced by advertising agency DDB China. "Experts from the Health and Family Planning Commission, the Red Cross Organ Donation Management Center, organ transplant doctors, and organ donation coordinators were invited to participate in the theme planning of this film," it adds.
The website also reveals that the commercial was widely shared on Chinese apps Weibo and WeChat, and featured by several news outlets in the country.
