Grey and Zumbi University Raise Awareness about Racial Discrimination in Medical Waiting Rooms

Racism around the world is not something new, but every day silenced forms of discrimination suffered by Afro-descendants come to light, and one that has severe consequences is discrimination in access to health. Millions of Black people every day are forced to wait an extra 13 to 15 minutes in an emergency medical waiting room in both Brazil and the United States. 

Zumbi dos Palmares is the first Brazilian university for Afro-descendants that for years, has had the mission of educating about all forms of racism. So that everyone can feel this silent form of discrimination firsthand, together with Grey Argentina and Grey Brazil they created a campaign for OOH and newspapers written with extensive texts that tell real stories of parents who died while waiting for medical attention. The interesting fact is that these texts take between 13 and 15 minutes to read, that extra time that Afro descendants must wait to receive medical attention.

“The idea is to transmit what someone feels when waiting for help and time is running out. We took real stories of Afro-descended people waiting to be treated in emergency rooms and telling them with the empathy and detail that only a long copy can achieve, making us feel in first person the endless wait in a hospital. A wait that many times can define life or death and that we wanted to highlight, before it is too late”, declared Mariano Mariano Favetto and Joaquín Ares, ECDs of Grey Borderless Argentina.

The campaign runs on OOH circuits of Rio de Janeiro, in addition to appearing as print advertisements in the main newspapers of Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and Maceió.