Giving faceless refugees a voice
It was quite an inaugural week for President Trump. With one squiggle of his Sharpie the new ‘Leader of the Free World’ suspended the entire US refugee admissions system for 120 days, and the Syrian refugee program indefinitely. Banned entry to anyone born in Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, and lowered the total number of refugees to be accepted from any country in 2017 to 50,000, down from 110,000.
Last week, acting on a request from two states, Washington and Minnesota, Judge James Robart of the Federal District Court in Seattle temporarily banned the administration from enforcing two parts of the order: its 90-day suspension of entry for people from seven majority-Muslim countries, and its limits on accepting refugees. The case is currently with the appeals court, and it’s very likely whoever loses will take it on to the Supreme Court. This issue is not going to be resolved anytime soon.
Enforcing the travel ban would prevent thousands of doctors, students, researchers and engineers from entering the country, including for example nearly 200 Google employees. This compelled leading US companies including Alphabet, Amazon, Ford, Goldman Sachs and Microsoft, all built on attracting the brightest global minds, to publically offer legal support.
Businesses of all sizes are coming under pressure to clarify their brand values and take a stance on some of these highly polarising issues. Last week, Starbucks' Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz pledged to hire 10,000 refugees. Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, said the brand would be providing free housing for refugees and anyone affected by the travel ban. Airbnb’s Super Bowl ad further enforced values with text that read: “We believe no matter who you are, where you’re from, who you love or who you worship, we all belong. The world is more beautiful the more you accept.” Similarly Super Bowl ads from Coca-Cola and Budweiser both explored themes of multiculturalism and acceptance.
It’s important not to forget that 45 million Americans still live in poverty. So when a charismatic TV personality/President uses a faceless immigrant to incite blame and fear, the solution appears easy. “You can’t use rational argument to overcome an emotional feeling. Calling people you disagree with politically racist or ignorant or uneducated isn’t a great way to change their mind,” said Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy and Mather.
Many companies have been focused on finding ways for us to connect to like-minded people. Now is the time to find common ground with those who look or think differently. By finding new ways to relate to one another we can overcome personal hardships together without provoking fear and hate.
Amnesty International is looking to convert outrage into support with its latest social campaign #TakeAction. Following recent political events, social media is awash with cries of outrage at the current refugee crisis. Twitter witnesses close to 10,000 tweets a day from users pledging their sympathy.
#TakeAction will enable refugees in Kenya and Lebanon to respond in real time to tweets sent by social media users who reference their sympathy toward the current crisis. These responses will be filmed, in a bid to bring refugees into the audience’s world, and a human face to the words. The refugee will thank the tweeter for their show of support from the other side of the globe but remind them that outrage is not enough – calling on the tweeter to #TakeAction and sign a global petition hosted at http://amn.st/60028rT6K.
Working alongside renowned photojournalist agency Magnum Photos, the short films will tell the moving stories of refugees throughout Kenya and Lebanon. Further content will be created to provide a behind-the-scenes look into the individual stories of the refugees featured in the short films.
Agency: Ogilvy UK - Advertising, London
Budweiser’s latest Super Bowl ad dials the clock back to 1857, telling the story of the brand's origin. The tale is of the German immigrant Adolphus Busch's arduous journey to America in pursuit of his dreams. A scene that seems to mirror today's political climate shows him facing insults as he enters the country. However the ad however was not originally perceived as a political statement. Instead the aim was to champion hard work and the pursuit of dreams against tough odds, themes that appeal to an entrepreneurial generation.
Agency: Anomaly, New York
Square, the mobile payments company started by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, have chosen a refugee entrepreneur to front their latest campaign – For Every Kind of Dream. Yassin Terou is the owner of Yassin’s Falafel House in Knoxville, Tennesee. A poignant eight-minute film tells the story of his escape from war-torn Syria in search of a better life, and how he found success as a business owner in America. “Yassin is a great example of a small-business owner who embodies inspiration, hope and confidence in creating community through his business,” said Square CMO Kevin Burke. “We believe that when empowered with the right tools, every entrepreneur can make their dream a reality”.
Agency: In-house Square Creative Team, San Francisco
We can be so quick to put people into categories. This ad for Danish TV channel TV2 shows that despite appearances, we’re more alike than we might think. The film begins with a narrator separating a group of Danes into “high-earners, and those just getting by, those we trust and those we don’t, people from the countryside and those who have never seen a cow, those who are religious and those who are not”. Once stood in their boxes the experiment discovers that despite their obvious differences, all the people in the room have things in common that transcend the physical appearance.
Agency: Nicholas Berglund, Paris
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