Racism: The Experiment

In order to determine the Greeks’ reaction to racism, McCann & ActionAid carried out a social experiment during the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

The experiment took place at two separate bus stops in Athens. Two actors—one Greek and one Bangladeshi—played out a racist assault in front of unsuspecting passers-by, while, a camera crew located across the street recorded the commuters’ responses.

The campaign’s main concept revolved around a tough question: If you witness an act of racism and don’t speak up, does this make you complicit? 

The video received incredible publicity: it reached 38,102 Twitter profiles, got 37,461 shares and comments on Facebook and was viewed over 1.5 million times on YouTube. According to Google, it ranked as the most-liked, most “subscribers gained”, most-watched and most-shared YouTube video in Greece for 2015.