News//Press
A homeless man’s life – live on Facebook
Viennese homeless shelter 'VinziRast' is a private organisation that set out to give homeless people more than just food and a roof over their heads. They offer them respect and human dignity.
To spread this attitude Viennese ad agency DEMNER, MERLICEK & BERGMANN created a special social media campaign to change people’s perception of the homeless.
By showing them as human beings. They convinced a young guest of the 'VinziRast' Homeless Shelter to document his everyday life on the street.
By sharing it on Facebook using the alias 'VinziGast'. So in the middle of funny memes, pictures of fancy lunches, party pics, hung over status reports, the normal banalities of Facebook timelines, appeared postings about how the cold wind feels when you are outside for hours and not just minutes, the disappointment of constant rejection at job interviews, the worries of maybe never finding work, the hope of living a normal life again, the story of how he ended up on the street, deep insights into the psychological consequences of being lonely and having nowhere to go… and, of course, pictures of not-so-fancy lunches and dinners.
So far the campaign has generated more than 360,000 impressions on Facebook, reports in all major Austrian media and even in some of Germany’s most prestigious papers and portals. But most importantly: through his actions on Facebook the young man was offered a job. And, now being a working man, is looking for a room.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vinzi-Gast/252724914886559