The Fake Romani Experiment’s core were 52 job applications to carefully selected employers and open positions, which should and would have led to job interviews – if only the names of the four highly qualified applicants hadn’t been changed to Fake Romani names. These 52 applications proved the grim reality of the Finnish society: Romani are still discriminated. Everything else in the campaign was mere documentation of these applications and their sad outcome.

Background

The inequality faced by the Romani in Finnish society is a complex and centuries-old issue. Yet, a few distinctive cultural elements, such as name, clothing, and accent, are enough to conjure up the prejudices. When it comes to working life, the first element one comes across with is the applicant’s name, which results in that even getting a job interview is a serious problem for the Romani.

Nevo Tiija is a project administered by Diak (Diaconia University of Applied Science) that aspires to improve the role of Romani minority in Finnish working life. Diak needed to raise nationwide awareness of the discrimination of Romani people, especially in employment.

Creative Idea

To make the majority face their own prejudices, we invited four on Finland’s most esteemed professionals to apply for jobs from their respective fields. Jobs, for which them they were indisputably qualified.

These four “Fake Romani” replied to job advertisements with their own CV’s but with typical Romani names. This simple social experiment was documented and the results shared in social media and PR.

Numerous studies prove, that the discrimination of Romani in the work life is deeply rooted and the prejudices are very strong. Despite Finland is often considered to be one of the most equal countries in the world, the Romani situation is often overlooked.

Strategy

For most Romani it is incredibly hard to get job interviews, even if their education qualifies them for the position. One major factor are their names. Finnish Romani families tend to have traditional names, which the employers easily identify as Romani names. Studies show that it is outrageously common that even employment officials recommend Romani to change their names in order to hide their ethnicity from their CVs.

Since the studies had failed to raise public discussion, we chose to make the matter more concrete by making influencers, who are members of the majority and thus more relatable to the general public, face the exact same discrimination.

Execution

We invited a business guru, a television personality, a top chef and a leading columnist to apply for work by using a Fake Romani name. They sent over 50 applications for various jobs in their respective fields but none of them were invited into a single job interview. The whole process was turned into a mini documentary, which was used to spearhead the campaign.

The campaign was launched through our influencers’ own social media channels. While sharing their respective videos of the experiment, they also changed their names on their social media accounts into the Fake Romani names. This alone caught the attention of journalists and the public.

The campaign relied heavily on earned media with a media budget of only 20 000 euros, which was used to drive further awareness on Facebook and YouTube and direct viewers to the campaign homepage.

Results

The Fake Romani Experiment shocked the nation. Some people reacted with denial, but as they met the research results at the campaign site, they couldn’t escape the truth.

All of Finland’s biggest newspapers, TV news channels and numerous talk shows reported several times about the campaign in 104 articles. Overall the campaign reach inside Finland (a country with a population 5 500 000) was over 192 000 000 (35*population), adding up to 1 765 000 € worth earned media.

Most importantly the discussion lead to concrete changes in the Finnish job market: just a few weeks after the campaign had started, Finland’s biggest employers (including the cities of Helsinki and Vantaa, and the two biggest retailers) announced, that they would switch to anonymous recruiting, making the job market more accessible to all minorities, not just the Romani.