A “Cure For Racism” and StopAAPIHate.org

Hate crimes against the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community increased 300 percent during the pandemic and remain a serious problem across the country. When the vaccines became widely available, Covid cases declined but Asian hate crimes remained on the rise and were being underreported in NYC.

We designed and manufactured hundreds of fake pill boxes and planted them in pharmacies throughout New York City where hate crimes have happened. And then papered those neighborhoods with ads for this new “Cure for Racism: AAPI Formula”

The “Cure for Racism: AAPI Formula” looks like a typical pack of pills on the shelf but on closer inspection, it educates readers that while there is no medical cure, compassion and empathy can help. QR codes and copy drive people to StopAAPIhate.org to help support the cause.

This guerrilla approach generated millions of earned media impressions in the press and inspired Anchor to create a quarterly prosocial program to use our creativity for causes our staffers are passionate about.