The Pilion Trust charity set up an interesting social experiments, trying get a sense of just how much people care about poverty in London. With the help of the Publicis agency, two versions of the experiment were conducted, sending a man out onto the streets wearing a sandwich board with a very different message each time.
For the first round, the man’s signs read "f*ck the poor" and people were quite vocal and showed a lot of care about how wrong this approach seemed to be. During round two, the man dons a sign that says "help the poor" and he is completely ignored. The campaign proves that people do care about the poor, but the message drastically changes how much more likely a person is to get involved in making a change towards ending poverty.
Uncompassionate Poverty Experiments
The Pilion Trust Tests Concern for Poverty in London
Trend Themes
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Compassionate Poverty Messaging — Businesses can explore using positive messaging in poverty campaigns to increase engagement and inspire action.
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Social Experiments for Social Causes — Organizations can conduct creative social experiments to draw attention to social issues and inspire positive change.
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Public Perception Impact on Social Change — Businesses can examine how public perception of social issues influences engagement and use it to shape future campaigns.
Industry Implications
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Non-profit — Non-profit organizations can benefit from conducting creative social experiments to draw attention to issues and inspire action.
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Marketing — Marketing agencies and firms can assist non-profit organizations in designing innovative social experiments to better communicate important social issues.
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Advocacy — Advocacy groups can use the results of this experiment to create more effective messaging that will inspire public support for ending poverty.