“We are Algorithm, a food brand built for
you,” declares “Stop the Forced Feed,” a British video offering such unique grocery items as “Free Range Misogyny,” “Racist White Bread” and
“Homophobia Grown Apples.”
The video, from Havas Health Network’s Havas SO in collaboration with two other Havas agencies --Conran Design Group and Prose on Pixels --
is the centerpiece of a destination site created for nonprofit Cybersmile Foundation, which works to “build a safer, more
positive digital community.”
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Designed to show the dangers of algorithms, the video itself was not actually served to anyone, but faux products like the ones named above – along
with a bag of “Long-Ingrained Body Shaming,” a package of “Rapid Mental Health Decline,” and cans of “Xenophobic Chow” and “Cream of Violence
Soup’’ – were delivered in “Food HARMpers” to Members of Parliament (MPs) and other policymakers.
Other elements of the earned media campaign have included
influencers posting videos of themselves opening up their own Algorithm food deliveries, and an activation at Tesco stores in Leicester, where
shelves were temporarily transformed to showcase the Algoritm brand.
The impetus for all this, Havas says, was research conducted last year for Cybersmile by Censuswide
showing “how quickly harmful content is surfaced without active engagement, with children exposed within minutes and adults within seconds.” Each faux food item, the firm says, was
based on “force-fed” content that had been served to study participants.
In its first week, Havas says, it generated 79.5 million impressions and drove a
42% increase in weekly traffic to Cybersmile’s website.
What’s more, one MP initiated a motion for Parliament to debate the topic and Prime
MinisterKeir Starmer said,”I am worried about algortihms becauser it is too quick for young people to be getting to material thy shouldn’t be accessing and we can’t leave
young people to self-police here.”
“The show 'Adolescence' put the dangers of algorithms in the spotlight,” said Havas SO Creative Director Lucy Doolan in a statement,
“but there was no public or political discussion about the need to give users complete control of the algorithms shaping their feeds. We needed a creative, visceral way to make the
non-consensual design of algorithms tangible -- and to confront the public and decision makers with the reality and impact of content that is fed to user without looking for it.”