Overcrowded boats, people trying to overcome fences, people waiting in queues—the representation of the so-called European refugee or migration crisis in the mass media is mainly dominated by stereotyped images and ideas. This is not to say, however, that there are no attempts at developing a more nuanced view of the situation, in documentary and fictionalized films, for example.

While these films generally evolve around individuals whose story is told as an example for the difficulties that people who have to leave their home countries encounter on their long way to Europe or once they are arrived, another, rather small group of short films or videos directly targets the stereotypes that dominate the Western, European discourse. Taking the traditional form of charity campaigns as a starting point, they give an ironic twist to the stereotypes these campaigns work with, confronting the viewers with their inherent absurdity. By analysing some examples such as the videos produced under the label of “Africa for Norway” by the SAIH, the Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance Fund (2012–) or the fake video campaign Adopt a Dane (2016), this paper proposes to show which techniques and how they are used to expose the stereotypes in the attempt to expose them by using humour instead of didactic explanations.

Conference paper by Cornelia Lund for Lübeck Film Studies Colloquium organised by Anders Marklund at the 59th Nordic Film Days Lübeck in 2017, released April 2020 on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340315260_Rusty_Stereotypes_or_how_fake_charity_campaigns_try_to_make_people_think_differently_about_migration
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