Raising awareness

Thanks in part to the success of shows like ABC’s hit hidden camera series What Would You Do?, as well as the rise in technology that has made quality cameras smaller and more portable, the hidden camera “social experiment” has become a huge attraction on YouTube. Watching to see if normal, everyday folks will do the “right” thing in a difficult situation is incredibly interesting.

The great thing is that, at least on these shows, people seem to do the “right” thing most of the time. When someone is in trouble or in need of help, we all have that pull to look out for our fellow man or woman. Sometimes, however, it doesn’t always go that way.

In the below video, produced by OckTV, the “social experiment” begins with a young boy in tattered pants, a ripped T-shirt, and no shoes on his feet standing on a New York City street. The weather? A an absolute frigid 5 degrees!

The boy plays the part of a homeless person, holding up his sign and asking for help. As the video rolls, you see throngs of people pass by on the busy sidewalk, and yet no one stops to help the young boy.

At one point, he just curls up inside of a flimsy garbage bag and lays on the ground, hoping that someone will help him. Sadly, no one does.

That is, until two hours later when another homeless man comes over to the boy and checks on him. He asks the boy if he’s cold and gives him the coat off his back while explaining that he, too, is homeless and that they need to look out for each other.

The producers of the video (the same guys that are filming it from one of the angles) are so moved that they come into the experiment and explain to the man that what he’s done for the boy has touched them in a profound way. They also hand him some money to help him take care of himself.

It’s a beautiful moment, to be sure, and one that speaks to the heart of a man that’s totally down on his own luck to be so selfless to give the coat off his back to someone else in need.

Now, of course, this is a hidden camera experiment. The boy is not actually homeless and, judging by the way OckTV edited the video, it does appear that some people did stop and put some change in the boy’s cup (particularly around the 2:28 mark where one woman looks like she gets change from the person she’s walking with and then walks back toward the boy with it before the video cuts).

So you can feel free to take some of this video with a grain of salt, but the message behind it rings strongly all the same. We all need to look out for each other in this world. If we help each other, then we can all help the world become a better place.