No matter what one might hear on Fox News, immigrants are good for the economy and our society. This video concept came to life as an antidote to the hateful anti-immigrant sentiment, rhetoric, and misinformation campaigns actively disseminated by right-wing politicians and some mainstream media outlets. At a time when the American public is so fractured, including because of larger-than-ever class stratifications, it is crucial that we find common ground.
Immigration opponents have used terms such as “migrant crime” and a false narrative around job scarcity and immigrants’ economic contributions to stoke fear among cash-strapped Americans. This video was developed to reframe immigration as a powerful engine of the American economy, not a drag on government resources. We aimed to persuade viewers with facts alone, not with fear narratives, or deceptive language, or by stoking hate for “the other.” And the facts don’t lie. With a highly politicized and often polarizing topic such as immigration, it’s especially important to present a fact-based, nonpartisan thesis. In this video, we rely on the strength and honesty of the message to effectively educate viewers, and the results have been outstanding.
We know that politically important “purple” geographies are being targeted particularly heavily in this election year. Our objective is to educate as many Americans as possible, including those living in these geographies, in an effort to inoculate them against disinformation on key topics related to democracy and the economy.
Our organization exists to educate millions of people about economic inequality and threats to American democracy through compelling digital content. Like many of our other longer-form explainer videos, this project was developed by a team of writers, directors, digital strategists, and animators at Inequality Media. Declared a “Gen-Z icon” by TikTok mega-influencer Victoria Hammett, our presenter and co-founder former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich is an expert at connecting with audiences of all age groups and whittling down ultra-complex concepts into compelling pieces of short content.
We were also faced with the challenge of breaking through corporate media’s blockade of coverage and “entertainment news” with our frameworks. This video is a pertinent example of the power of accessible digital education. With the help of our motionographers, we were able to present complex information in a digestible way, helping viewers engage without feeling overwhelmed by the task of research. A topic as broad and emotionally charged as immigration can be intimidating, but by turning it into a narrative story and using tangible examples, we were able to make it more material for our audience and thus, easier to engage with.
The first three seconds of an internet video are the most important. With this video, we used it to grab people and immediately debunk the myth that immigrants are bad, for the economy, society, or otherwise. We challenged mainstream misconceptions about immigration and the economy with this video, which meant that we had to create moving, persuasive content that could stand up to the flood of immigration misinformation on the internet. The execution of this project relied heavily on social platforms, leveraging organic and targeted outreach to break through algorithmic noise. Many of our key challenges included having to overcome limited reach due to some social platforms censoring so-called “political” content. Unfortunately, lots of powerful educational content gets swept into the algorithmic closet, so to speak. Making it shareable and entertaining is a challenge in and of itself, but our results on this project crystallized just how powerful this kind of content can be when handled in the right way.
Our primary goal as an organization is to educate. And part of our ethos is engaging with those “across the aisle.” It’s not always possible to measure the real, causal impact of a social media video or gauge who it is really “reaching.” However, by performing persuasion “lift” studies on this video (using a randomized control trial), we were able to gather significant data about how persuasive this video was to viewers. We found that our content continuously tests in the top 2% of impact of social media video.
After watching “The Truth About Immigrants and the Economy,” certain viewers were moved more than 18 points towards agreeing that immigration is positive for the economy. Notably, this video was particularly resonant with undecided voters and even current Trump supporters. We also found we moved viewers ages 55+ a staggering 18.5 points towards agreeing that immigrants contribute positively to the economy. When asked if immigration should be increased or decreased in the US, even current Trump voters moved 7.8 points towards “increased.” This stat is particularly potent given the volume of Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. This video also received 1.38 million organic views across platforms and more than 170,000 engagements, exemplifying the reach of our messaging.
