Forever Welcome
Within the U.S. there has been an increase in Xenophobia stemming from many things that include fear of "others" or outsiders. The Forever Welcome movement is meant to help Intouch Group connect with its local community of immigrants and demonstrate its commitment to diversity and inclusion. So how can we keep this movement growing and make it more than just a group in Facebook? The quickest way to reach people and make it news worthy is with big stunts and activations in the right place, at the right moment that can actually change lives and lead immigrants into getting the help that they really need.
Copywriter: Luvkumar Khemlani
Art Director: Michaella Sena
Art Director: Luis Martinez
As two international students out of three, my team was pretty into this movement and really understood what it was all about, with that being said, we also ran some polls for the other great amount of immigrants that we had around at that moment and realized something powerful that every person could enjoy doing without feeling ashamed or lost, eating. That's right, as simple as food. That's why this first idea is based on snacks from different countries that explain what it is and nothing more. We found out that people tend to talk more when they're asked things that they know a lot of or feel confident with.
So we wanted to place this Vending Machine in big and small offices, it doesn't matter as long as they are diverse. The idea behind it is to get the conversation started, just that really, we found out that hate towards people from a country is based on stereotypes but it actually decreases drastically when people get to meet each other and tear those barriers apart. So the same concept can be applied to public interactions, specifically those where people tend to spend most of the time next to each other but don't say a word.
Normally when buses are not full, half of the seats are taken by purses, backpacks and other personal belongings to keep people from seating next to each other. Well, what if we choose a day and suddenly shut off half of a bus? Then most of the people would have to share the seat next to them in order to give all passengers a seat. As we stated before, the idea is just to start the conversation and let people figure by their own that everyone is similar to a degree and there's nothing wrong with cultural differences.
The next step? To talk. And just to make it easier we'll put some conversation starters right on their faces! Sometimes the easiest way is to take our headphones off and start a conversation.