The refugee crisis in the Mediterranean Sea was a largely discussed topic in 2014. It separated Germany into two main groups: one pro-refugees and the right ring party being absolutely against them. While the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean along the world’s deadliest border continuous, its media coverage decreased heavily. The topic simply lost its „news-value“ and with it Sea-watch’s vision and ongoing efforts fell silent. Language is revolution. If we were to turn the tide, the conversation must go on. “LIFEBOAT – The experiment” re-creates a momentum and stresses the fact that the ongoing refugee crisis is not a single countries problem, but one that concerns all of Europe. The campaign generated a mindshift in society by re-enabling access to the most human of our feelings: Empathy.

To regain awareness for Sea-Watch and the ongoing refugee crisis we set up a one-of-it’s kind PR Stunt. Based on the emotional stories of five refugees we set up a simulation to let a group of Germans develop emotions of stress, anxiety and experiences that are somewhat similar but only a fragment of a real escape over the Mediterranean. 40 voluntary participants represented the German society in age, gender and profession. Psychologically this change of perspective created 40 new faces to feel empathy for and to identify with. All experiences were captured in the documentary-short of the simulation “LIFEBOAT- The experiment“. A holistic campaign including off- and online media touch points as well as selected influencer drove traffic to our campaign website www.lifeboatexperiment.org. Here we invite people to inform, understand and feel the torture of each individual journey renewing the public debate and sparking a mindshift in society.