16 seconds and a few dance moves: that's all it took to turn Özlem Yagmur into a small internet star overnight.

The video has meanwhile generated millions of clicks and thousands of likes, in which she is danced to by a man on the side of the street on Christopher Street Day (CSD) in Cologne and decides without further ado to simply dance along.

David Lindenfeld

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So far, so normal: On social platforms like TikTok or Instagram, it's "business as usual".

But with Yagmur there is a difference to the models and influencers who plan their contributions well in advance: She is a police officer, was on duty at the time and just got carried away.

"I actually didn't know that I was being filmed," says Özlem Yagmur on the phone on Friday.

"I think you can see that too."

She also sways with the Shrove Monday parade

The first week after the CSD was extremely unspectacular.

Then a colleague sent her a link to the video, which first appeared out of nowhere – and then suddenly could be seen everywhere.

Yagmur looked at it, just had to smile at first.

She thought briefly about how the 16 seconds would be received by the employer.

"But then I quickly came to the conclusion: It's nothing else than when I'm standing at the Shrove Monday parade and swaying along," says Yagmur.

This has happened to her too.

On the other hand, one could hardly defend oneself in Cologne.

Nevertheless, she was relieved when she could be sure that she did not have to fear a negative reaction from her employer.

Özlem Yagmur grew up in Cologne and loved dancing hip-hop even as a teenager.

When the video went viral, she didn't think for a second whether it could become hype, says the police officer.

She is pretty inactive on social media.

But as more and more people see, share and like how she dances, Yagmur is drawn to the comment columns too.

98 percent of the texts were positive: "I can live well with the other one, two or three percent."

Many would have seen through the video: police officers, these are normal people.

Otherwise she could get little out of the campaign: "I was just happy that I was able to make friends with so many people.

On the other hand, it was surprising for me because I didn't behave any differently than usual," says Yagmur - and thus explains the reasons why the video was received so much more positively than many of the elaborately staged video clips from the police headquarters in Germany.

These are often intended to paint the image of a modern, cosmopolitan and cool profession, but instead they are often given the stamp “cringe” by the younger generation.

Authenticity beats staging.

And everyday heroes are always popular.

Andy Warhol saw this coming many years ago.

In the late 1970s, the American artist predicted that everyone would be famous for 15 minutes in the future.

That no longer necessarily applies to the entertainment industry and pop culture.

Content is getting shorter and shorter.

But the basic assumption is correct: the attention span is short, the fame is fleeting.

Many appear out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly.

Yagmur also knows: It is temporary hype.

"Tomorrow or the day after something else will happen that will go viral on the internet." That's okay for the police officer.