With our interest in anything migration related due to its importance as the issue of the 21st century, we picked up this domain when it became available. It’s history is interesting, and plays into our strategy of preserving interesting web content related to how people perceive immigration.
An Australian ad agency created the site as part of a an advertising competition. The brief for the contest was to change the perception of immigrants in Australia. At the time, the competition organizers thought that Australians attitude about immigrants was there was too many of them. Immigrants pouring into Australia stole jobs from Australians. AdNews believed instead that immigrants contribute two way, contributing to the economy and to the culture of Australia.
In taking up the challenge, the ad agency built the competition ad using the software for a popular flight simulator game. People who played the game were thus familiar with look and feel of it. By providing a free game that initially looked like you could kick a migrant out of Australia, the ad agency targeted the audience whose opinions it wished to change. People liked the game, it was played over 200 million times. Playing through the game to the end delivered a twist to the player that perhaps changed perceptions. Overall it was perceived as a success.
Our plan is to see what we can bring back of the functionality of the game. We also wanted to provide resources on finding these types of change mechanisms on immigrant attitudes. Lastly, we aim to provide context and resources related to migration. If you want to get in touch, please do.