Well this is intriguing. Leveraging the notion that life isn’t fair and people make decisions based on appearances over need or skill, Y&R Prague created a social experiment as part of a promotion for Forbes Magazine.
The agency had a man pretend to be ill in a public square. No one came to his aid. But when they did the stunt a second time and dressed the man up in a suit, within 15 seconds, several people came to his aid. Same man, different clothing.
The campaign’s tagline — Life is Unfair. Get An Unfair Advantage — hinges on the fact people are far less likely to come to the aid of a person who, shall we say, appears to come from less than average means. And, like it or not, we are reminded that success (or the appearance of success) can, figuratively and literally, be a matter of life and death.
The takeaway, of course, is that we all should read Forbes so that we become successful and are viewed as such by those around us as such. But it’s not just that. There’s really two messages here. The first has to do with people’s perception of success and how it defines a person. The second is that success is something we all should chase because, like it or not, life really is unfair and, for our own self interest, we should do whatever we can to get an unfair advantage.
Or maybe it’s just that all guys should dress like the the models gracing the pages of GQ.
The video is in Czech. Turn on captions for subtitles.
