Online plea for help to find little girl’s father nothing more than marketing scam

A video uploaded to the popular website YouTube implored viewers to assist with discovering the real identity of the father of little baby August.

The video sparked massive response with over a million views per day since its release. However, the impassioned plea has since been revealed as nothing more than a hoax by the Danish tourism agency. In the video, solo Danish mum Karen can be seen holding the toddler while informing viewers of her search for the father which she apparently forgot after a one night stand in the Danish capital. The video was accompanied by an additional site containing a variety of photos of the mother and child. Both the video and photos launched massive public debate and widespread news coverage, along with thousands of viewer comments.

Some viewers said that Karen was a brave single mother for stepping forward in such emotionally difficult circumstances. Others described her as nothing more than an irresponsible young lady. However, after a brief series of searches it was revealed that Karen was in fact Ditte Arnth Jorgensen, a 27-year old Danish actress. No comment has been made by the actress and the true parents of the child have not been revealed.

Ms Jorgensen was part of the tourism agency VisitDenmark’s newest marketing campaign. VisitDenmark spokesperson Dorte Kiilerich proclaimed the video was the “most effective thing we have ever done to market Denmark”. Kiilerich told Danish TV2 that the video showed Denmark, as yet an apparently unknown tourism destination, was a country where women were free to make their own choices in a free society. Kiilerich said she did not feel that viewers were being tricked by the production. ‘This is a good, sweet and really harmless story and it’s not unusual to sell false stories when you communicate,’ Kiilerich said. The revelations have caused outrage among the Danish public who feel their women and being portrayed as promiscuous and that tourism would be more likely to suffer than benefit from the sham.