About

Rethink, Reskill, Reboot refers to a retraining campaign launched by the UK Government to encourage more people to get involved in the cyber sector. After being released in 2019 as part of the "CyberFirst" campaign, the ad began recirculating online in October 2020 where it was met with criticism from social media users. In memes, the campaign was made fun of with a series of photoshopped parodies referencing the original, typically including members of the UK Government alongside the slogan, "Rethink, Reskill, Reboot."

Origin

Originally released in 2019 as part of the UK Government's CyberFirst campaign,^[8] the advert was part of a long-running push to promote cybersecurity jobs and featured a series of poster ads with people from a variety of professions. In the advertisements, several professions were depicted suggesting that they "didn't know it yet" but that their "next job could be in cyber" with the slogan "Rethink, Reskill, Reboot," appearing near the bottom. In October of 2020, after the ads recirculated online, one particular poster featuring a ballet dancer named "Fatima" caused a heated reaction online from social media users who expressed that the campaign's attempt to encourage people involved in the arts and culture industry to move to the cyber industry was tone-deaf due to the arts industry facing mounting struggles during the coronavirus pandemic (seen below).

In mid-October, the campaign sparked backlash online from several users, despite the campaign not explicitly targeting the retraining of workers in the arts. One such reaction was posted by musician Fatboy Slim, who included the ad in a tweet^[1] on October 12th, receiving over 1,800 likes, 420 retweets and 123 quote tweets in 32 hours (shown below).

Spread

After the campaign was revealed on social media, #Fatima started trending on Twitter^[2] with people ridiculing the ballet dancer ad or producing parody versions. On October 12th, Twitter^[3] user lucy_mccourt shared a redesigned version of the ad mocking the original under the caption "I fixed it." The tweet received over 63,000 likes and 16,200 retweets in 33 hours (shown below).

On October 12th, Twitter^[4] user SalAhmad tweeted one such parody showing the mascot of Arsenal under the caption "Rethink. Reskill. Reboot." receiving over 18,900 likes and 2,700 retweets in roughly 32 hours (seen below). That same day, Redditor Fernandov2 reposted the parody to the /r/Gunners^[5] subreddit, receiving over 200 upvotes in 30 hours.

Photoshop Parodies

Social media users created numerous parody posters in the wake of the original, including depictions of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his advisor Dominic Cummings, U.S. President Donald Trump, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage and Chancellor of the Execqueher Rishi Sunak.

On October 12th, comedian Russell Kane shared a parody of himself on his Facebook^[6] page, receiving over 8,900 likes, 806 shares and 414 comments in 27 hours (seen below, left). That same day, Instagram^[7] user dj_fattony_ also shared an example of a parody ad featuring Rishi Sunak, receiving over 12,600 likes in roughly 24 hours (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References