Because of the long-lasting war in Syria thousands of people escape to Europe. Whilst in the beginning they were welcomed, today the refugees increasingly encounter rejection and hate. Especially in Germany right-wing radicalism is getting stronger and stronger. Their greatest weapon is the internet, where lies and false reports are consciously spread, to increase the hate and to incite the population against the fleeing people. The organization «Refugees Welcome», that helps refugees to integrate in Germany, intends to put a stop to the spreading of digital hate. They want to demonstrate that no one has to be afraid of the refugees and further make the Germans rethink. With a previously unseen idea that confronts the consumers of racist material directly.

The German organization «Refugees Welcome» wanted to stop the distribution of digital hate videos: With a clever idea and courageous refugees, who stand up against the hate preachers. In 10 spots refugees disproved common prejudices with hard facts, surprising revelations or humor. Furthermore they anticipated the content of the following videos. For instance, when searching for Lutz Bachmann, the German right-wing leader of Pegida, viewers were confronted by Arif from Syria, who did away with prejudices. Other pre-roll ads showed that refugees put a lot of effort into learning the local language or debunk false statistics. At the end of each video the refugee appealed to better watch his or her story instead of listening to more prejudice. With the button “Skip prejudice” the viewer was led to the story of the particular refugee and invited to change his thoughts about their – till then – objects of hate.

With a combination of channel and keyword targeting 10 spots were shown as unskippable ads in front of over 100 racist videos on YouTube. All of them disproved common prejudices with hard facts, surprising revelations or humor and anticipated the content of the following videos. For instance, when searching for Lutz Bachmann, the German right-wing leader of Pegida, viewers were confronted by Arif from Syria, who did away with prejudices. Other pre-roll ads showed that refugees put a lot of effort into learning the local language or debunk false statistics. Additionally, Google Ad words were booked to lead the users to the spots of our refugees. So the racists where confronted with their biggest fear for the first time. And they realized that there is nothing to be afraid of or hateful about, as the refugees are just normal people like us.