The 'Dear President Putin' meme originated in February 2022 when actress AnnaLynne McCord uploaded a spoken-word poem on Twitter following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the video, McCord dramatically recites lines suggesting that if she had been Putin's mother, she could have prevented the conflict through love and nurturing. The video immediately went viral, being labeled as 'peak celebrity cringe' and 'main character syndrome.' Netizens quickly turned the dramatic delivery and the specific line 'I'm so sorry I was not your mother' into a parody template, using it to mock out-of-touch celebrity activism and overly dramatic reactions to global geopolitical events.