Charity creates harrowing donation campaign hacking Amazon to help refugees
L’Auberge des Migrants
Issue 58 | March 2021
Agency
BETC
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director Stéphane Xiberras Art Director Vincent Lesne Assistant Art Director Bastien Sabot Copywriter Matthieu Bouilhot Migrant Copywriters Riaz A, Kaleem U, Shakir J, Atif S, Mohamad H, Aziz R, Fazulrehman Z, Abdulhadi S, Nargis H, Ibrahim B, Berihu T
Production Team
Producer Fanny Perier Production Company General Pop
Other Credits
Agency Managers Mercedes Erra, Stéphane Xiberras, Catherine Emprin Account Executives Catherine Emprin, Jeanne Libfeld Client Brand Manager Sarah Gallitre
Date
January 2021
Background
L’Auberge des Migrants was established in 2008 to help migrants hoping to reach the UK with clothing, food and hygiene products.
Trapped in Calais, their situation was made worse by the pandemic. Volunteers were put in lockdown and donors were less willing to provide funding.
Idea
As a result of Covid in 2020, one website saw a huge increase in the number of its visitors. Amazon. To raise awareness of the plight of refugees and encourage donations, the comments feature of Amazon’s website was hijacked.
Where the products they needed so desperately were being sold, ten former migrants told their stories. Someone looking for a toothbrush would see Riaz A’s comment: ‘It does not wear out quickly.
Mine was neon green, which helps locate it when you lose it in the mud.’ In total, hundreds of products were given comments of this sort. Viewers could click on the user’s profile to learn more of their personal stories and connect to the charity’s wishlist of essentials, from tents to blankets to cans, which could be bought with just two clicks.
Our Thoughts
What makes this powerful is the uncomfortable juxtaposition between what is to the shopper a relatively low-cost and low-interest item and what is to the refugee the means of survival. The contrast between the easy consumerism of our world and the desperation of the migrants is shocking because it is so unexpected. You really don’t expect to come across deprivation on Amazon so when you do, it cuts through in a way a TV or radio plea may not because we have become inured to them.