News & Blogs People Disguised As Homeless Ignored By Loved Ones On Street In Stunning Social Experiment

Matt Derrick

Matt Derrick

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People Disguised As Homeless Ignored By Loved Ones On Street In Stunning Social Experiment
The Huffington Post | by Sara Gates
Posted: 04/23/2014 6:37 pm EDT Updated: 04/24/2014 4:59 am EDT
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Make Them Visible Homeless Video Homeless Make Them Visible Homeless Family Member Video Homelessness Homeless Social Experiment Homeless Mother Video Recognize Homeless Family Member Make Them Visible Video

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If a family member posed as a homeless person, would you recognize him or her?

That's the question a new campaign -- Make Them Visible -- is asking. In a video produced by ad agency Silver + Partners and Smuggler for the New York City Rescue Mission, several people come face-to-face with their relatives and significant others dressed as homeless people. However, not a single participant recognizes their mother, brother or wife.

"There’s only one person that didn’t make it into the film -- because they couldn’t handle the fact that they walked by their family," video director Jun Diaz of Smuggler production company told Fast Company. "It happened every time."

The jarring social experiment, staged in Tribeca and Soho near the mission's shelter, shows just how invisible homeless people are to pedestrians on the street.

"We don't look at them. We don't take a second look," Michelle Tolson, director of public relations for the New York City Rescue Mission, told The Huffington Post.

Tolson explained that the ad agency and production company hired actors for a documentary video and quietly contacted each person's family to see if they would be interested in being apart of the social experiment. While the family members were in on the ruse, the participants had no idea they were being set up, and only learned after the fact when they watched themselves walk past their "homeless" family member.

"The experiment is a powerful reminder that the homeless are people, just like us, with one exception," Craig Mayes, executive director of New York City Rescue Mission, said in a statement provided to HuffPost. "They are in trouble and in pain. And they are someone's uncle or cousin or wife."

Watch how each person reacts after the big reveal in Make Them Visible's video above.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/...ml?&ir=Weird+News&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000025
 
I'm guessing that people who walk by others who "look homeless" have been conditioned to avoid eye contact in an effort to avoid getting spanged.
 
I wouldn't recognize them ether..all fucking covered up to the hilt. I barely recognize people when they walk right by me for fuck sakes.
In my opinion this vid goes in the same pile of fake ass "experiment" vids people make these days in order to back up some view on the human condition so they can post it up on equality fake sites like up-worthy...Its about as real as Jurassic Park. Stop making retarded vids like these you indie hipsters!
 
Staged as fuck, like sketch said you'd have to get up on em with a magnifying glass all sherlock holmes style to notice them damn near. Woulda been far more realistic if the cops came running outta the wood work and beat the shit out of em for sitting on the sidewalk.
 
The thing is, even if their faces weren't particularly visible, they didn't even *look* at them. Not even a stride was broken. If they paused for a moment, maybe made conversation (like a few people I know), they would have seen them as people, and people they knew. Even when that one man was sitting away from the walking woman, his feet were at least in her path. She wasn't even looking down.

I think the thought of them training themselves to avoid being spanged is right, but still pretty low.

Addressing the staged bit: yesh. Very staged, but you had to set it up so those people who walked their normal routes, would bump into these people.

(apologies for the length)
 
The best of the "homeless tests" was the preacher who was starting his new job at a big congregation and he dressed up as a homeless guy for his first Sunday. He was shunned by everyone at the church and then as a church employee began to introduce him, he stood up from his lonely row and reamed those "christians" for their lack of compassion and whatnot. It happened recently, if I was on my laptop I'd link an article, it was highly entertaining to read about.
 
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