THE UNFILTERED HISTORY TOUR

Short List
TitleTHE UNFILTERED HISTORY TOUR
BrandVICE WORLD NEWS
Product / ServiceVICE WORLD NEWS
CategoryB03. Social Content for User Engagement
EntrantDENTSU WEBCHUTNEY Bengaluru, INDIA
Idea Creation DENTSU WEBCHUTNEY Bengaluru, INDIA
Idea Creation 2 DENTSU WEBCHUTNEY Mumbai, INDIA
Idea Creation 3 DENTSU WEBCHUTNEY Gurgaon, INDIA
Media Placement DENTSU WEBCHUTNEY Mumbai, INDIA
PR DENTSU WEBCHUTNEY Mumbai, INDIA
Production DENTSU WEBCHUTNEY Mumbai, INDIA
Production 2 PIXEL PARTY New Delhi, INDIA
Production 3 VICE MEDIA London, UNITED KINGDOM

Credits

Name Company Position
Gautam Reghunath Dentsu Creative Head of Business
Aditiya P.G. Dentsu Creative Head of Creative
Gurbaksh Singh Dentsu Creative Innovation Lead
Binaifer Dulani Dentsu Creative Creative Lead
Karishma Changroth Dentsu Creative Project Lead
Ashwin Palkar Dentsu Creative Creative Head - Art
Kushal Lalvani Dentsu Creative Copy Lead
Aabhaas Shreshtha Dentsu Creative Creative - Art
Anjali Thomas Dentsu Creative Account Manager
Geetika Sood Dentsu Creative Creative Producer
Niranjan Raghu Dentsu Creative Video Lead
Manish Joseph Dentsu Creative Motion Graphics Lead
Ishtaarth Dalmia Dentsu Creative Strategist
Ananya S Rao Dentsu Creative Strategist
Meghna Yesudas Dentsu Creative Social Lead
Shaleen Wadhwana Consultant Research Consultant
Shreya Vivek Arora Dentsu Creative Senior Art Director
Tanya Paul Dentsu Creative Senior Art Director
Vignesh Praveen Dentsu Creative Animation and Video Production
Manasi Sheth Dentsu Creative Art Director
Rakesh Bairwa Dentsu Creative Lead Web Developer
Rahul Sharma Dentsu Creative Web Developer
Gerson Pearson Dentsu Creative Video and Mixed Reality Producer
Priyanka Borah Dentsu Creative Business Lead
Stuti Sudha Dentsu Creative Copywriter
Amey Chodankar Dentsu Creative Creative - Art
Karthik Nambiar Dentsu Creative Auxiliary Art Support
Farishte Irani Dentsu Creative Microsite - Copy
Vaishakh Kolaprath Dentsu Creative Art Director
Ronak Chugh Rooted Films LLP Films
Sameer Rahat Consultant Music Composer
Jeremy Pinto Vivi5 Studios Motion Graphics
Manas Sharma Vivi5 Studios Motion Graphics
Mehul Mahicha Vivi5 Studios Motion Graphics
Ateesh Chattopadhyay Consultant .
Prashant Bhikadia Consultant .
Sachin Ghanekar Consultant .
Emi Eleode Consultant .
Shanel Moraes Consultant .

Background

Situation The British Museum is the world’s largest receiver of stolen goods. With over 8 million objects, that’s a lot of looted artefacts. For for centuries, we’ve only heard the imperialist version of they got there. An equitable environment can only be created when silenced voices express the intergenerational trauma caused by colonial loot. Brief To place VICE World News at the forefront of conversations around colonialism and challenge dominant cultures by opening up dialogue to countries around the world to create a balance in the way history has been told. Objectives 1. Give a platform to underrepresented minority voices to share their accounts of artefacts that belong to their country. 2. Re-ignite the ongoing conversation on repatriation and postcolonialism on social media, with VICE championing marginalised voices. 3. Educate young people about the untold side of history using a tool as accessible as Instagram filters to tell unfiltered stories.

Describe the creative idea

The Unfiltered History Tour is an interactive multimedia tour of the British Museum’s disputed artefacts through Instagram Augmented Reality filters and an extended podcast series. From Egyptologists, to the seventh descendant of the Gweagal Shield, to the Governor of Rapa Nui - 10 experts play tour guide in narrating the true histories of artefacts from their homelands. Visitors to the museum can scan disputed artefacts, and see them being teleported back in time to their home countries (featuring the first-ever visual depictions of scenes of colonial crime, narrated by voices of native experts). Those who aren’t at the British Museum can unfilter history with immersive audio-video experiences and extended podcasts detailing the stories of colonial crime, hosted on the Unfiltered History Tour website.

Describe the strategy

Data gathering Through an exhaustive selection process in consultation with an art historian, disputed artefacts with an imperialist narrative were chosen, with representation across continents and cultures - Jamaica, Easter Island, Egypt, Greece, Nigeria, Ghana, Iraq, India, China and Australia. Target audience We took a social-first approach and spoke to young people on platforms they were most likely to take notice of - Instagram, TikTok, Spotify, Apple Music and other audio platforms. Approach At any given point, only 1% of the British Museum's collection is on display. Through our extended podcast series, users could continue to discover the unfiltered history of artefacts not on display - like the Amaravati Marbles from India and Birdman and Boiyanel Structures from Jamaica. Call to action Visitors to the British Museum were invited to experience another side of history by taking the Unfiltered History Tour.

Describe the execution

There is a danger in a single story and narrative, and so the attempt was to balance the narrative by giving a platform to underrepresented colonial voices, without any agenda. The Unfiltered History Tour was developed by a 100-person strong team working remotely for 18 months across 10 timezones. We got expert voices from the countries these artefacts belonged to - Ghana’s Ernest Domfe and Haki Shakur, Nigeria’s Victor Ehikhamenor, Egypt’s Heba Abd el Gawad, Iraq’s Max Joseph, Jamaica’s Sharifa Balfour, Greece’s Petros Apostolakis, Australia’s Claire G Coleman and Rodney Kelly, China’s Fu Yiwen and Rapa Nui’s Tarita Alarcón Rapu and Sergio Rapu. Their accounts of the intergenerational trauma and suffering of their ancestors, along with the looting of their cultural treasures formed the bedrock for the extended 10-part podcast series and Instagram Augmented Reality filters that launched in December, 2021.

List the results

In its first month, the campaign has seen $631K earned media 32 million social impressions 40% rise in TikTok followers and 49% increase in total impressions on Instagram 21,583 podcast downloads and 5,200 filter uses Change in behaviour According to a 2014 survey, 59% of Britons were proud of the British Empire. In a poll conducted weeks after the Tour was launched, 59% of Britons said they believed the Parthenon Marbles (part of the Tour) belonged in Greece, a sharp turn in the opposite direction. The podcast series let us go a lot deeper with the project and give audiences something heavily educational, not found in British history textbooks. What some users had to say after taking the tour: “Clever and a brilliant way of teaching historical reality” “Confronts and challenges colonial origins.” “Hearing the past told by multiple perspectives gives depth.” “A much needed resource.”

Links

Supporting Webpage