The gender reveal trend strikes again: A couple in Brazil is facing scrutiny after a viral video on Instagram showed them revealing the gender of their baby by dying a waterfall blue. Brazil’s environment authority is now investigating the incident according to local media outlets.
The gender reveal craze is showing no signs of stopping as an unidentified couple in Brazil decided to go big. According to Brazilian news website Midiajur, the couple opted to reveal the gender of their baby by dying a waterfall blue, posting a video of the event on Instagram.
Um casal de Tangará da Serra (MT) decidiu tingir de azul uma cachoeira para anunciar que o filho que estão esperando é menino. Os vídeos publicados no Instagram foram apagados depois da repercussão negativa. pic.twitter.com/Kw4wRmg0Se
— Lázaro Thor (@lazarothor1) September 26, 2022
The video reportedly received backlash before it was deleted, but it was subsequently reposted to Twitter and Reddit. In addition to the dyed waterfall, the couple used blue smoke flares and invested in a question mark made out of pink and blue balloons. Brazil’s environmental authority SEMA, or Secretaria de Estado de Meio Ambiente do Mato Grosso in Portugese, is investigating the extent of any environmental damage. According to SEMA, the couple held the reveal on private property this past Sunday and the waterfall in the video is a part of the Queima Pé River in Tangará de Serra.
“Sema-MT will notify the owners of the area so that they can inform who were responsible and will determine if there was environmental damage, depending on the material released into the water,” said SEMA in a press release. “A team composed of two servers from Sema-MT and four servers from the Secretary of the Municipality of Tangará da Serra are on site and nearby investigating the complaint.”
A local media outlet reported that they contacted one of the people behind the reveal party who told them no chemical product was used but wouldn’t comment further until the investigation is over.
Environmental catastrophe and gender reveals go together like bread and butter. As Insider pointed out, the dyed waterfall trend for gender parties has seen its fair share of attention, especially on TikTok. Likewise, a U.S. couple’s gender reveal in 2020 via smoke bomb sparked the massive El Dorado wildfire in California, leading to their arrest and prosecution.