Concern Worldwide is a global humanitarian organization dedicated to eliminating extreme poverty — whatever it takes. For their first-ever US campaign, Concern wanted to spread widespread attention on the issue of extreme poverty. In our current socioeconomic climate, the disparities of inequality have never been bigger so how do we get people to take action against it?
With the amount of wealth in circulation, we were faced with the reality that extreme poverty didn’t need to exist. If the richest people on Earth focused their efforts on eradicating extreme poverty instead of paying for space travel or buying second, third or forth homes they don’t need, the world would be in a much better place. To illuminate this undeniable truth, we turned this what-if into a reality through the guise of fake news. We launched 50 fake news headlines, alongside 50 seemingly-real news reports, with the hashtag #unfortunatelyfakenews and a call to action, “Until it’s real, please donate.” Following the lifecycle of traditional news coverage, #unfortunatelyfakenews appeared everywhere: the breeding ground for fake news — social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube — as well as podcasts like Crooked and NPR, and billboards in high profile cities like San Francisco and Atlanta. For the first time in history, fake news was the source of legitimate, crucial information.