A French non-profit presented ‘Will’, the first virtual figure representing homelessness in the metaverse.
The metaverse and the campaign to raise awareness of the social condition of the homeless
The campaign was created by TBWA-Paris, a French company that creates very innovative advertising content.
The promotional video was created for Entourage Network, a French non-profit organization, which is the promoter of this initiative.
The idea is not to distract the mind from the humanitarian conditions from which the real world still suffers. Homelessness is still a very present problem that needs to be addressed and somehow solved, or at least managed in a more conscious way.
Indifference to this kind of problem is the focus of this initiative. In the last two years especially, we have been inundated with constant news about the metaverse, virtual worlds, new, fantastic and totally immersive experiences.
However, we must not forget that these are realities that can only appear ‘perfect’ from a conceptual point of view. It is wonderful to be able to immerse oneself in an ideal world and it is just as easy to forget everything real once you are inside.
The protagonist of this initiative is Will, a virtual homeless man who wanders around in the metaverse shedding light on some very delicate aspects that are worth dwelling on.
It is good to understand how some consumption habits of users within the metaverse can sometimes lead to futility and exaggeration.
The protest video
The video of the initiative published by TBWA Paris on YouTube really gets the message across effectively and in just over 60 seconds.
One part of the video encapsulates the true essence of the message that is intended to get across to the public, quoting:
“My name’s Will. I’m the first homeless person in the metaverse. I exist to remind you that more than 300.000 homeless people live in the most precarious conditions, without any social ties. Do you also agree that before investing in virtual worlds we should first take care of our real world? And help those who are isolated?”
This is the video’s denunciation of what is happening nowadays. It reminds us that we are losing the conception of everything around us and that reality is getting out of hand.
It talks about how absurd it is to spend $650,000 on a yacht made of pixels or millions of dollars on luxury villas that don’t exist.
This criticism has to do not only with the purely economic aspect, but also with how much these kinds of actions make us detach ourselves from everything that really exists.
For a moment we need to forget about useless things, real and otherwise, and dwell on these kinds of issues that affect us all in some way.
Through the Entourage app, it will be possible to identify the people who are most in need in a given area. In this way, everyone can contribute with a small and simple gesture, working together for a common goal.
Blockchain helps raise awareness of important social issues
This is by no means the first time that blockchain technology has been used to raise people’s awareness of important social issues.
In addition to the potential that the technology offers, the growing community that is able to rally strongly around currently prominent topics, such as NFTs and metaverse, is now being exploited.
At the Dubai expo, for example, a 6-year-old girl, Lily, presented her NFT collection. The project aims to increase female empowerment in an innovative way.
Another important case is the project of Numus, a company that divided an area of the Amazon Rainforest into plots of land represented by NFTs. The proceeds from the sale of these are intended to safeguard and preserve the ecosystem of the Green Lung of our Planet.
Source: https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2022/04/16/will-first-homeless-person-inside-metaverse/