The weirdness of this week continued on Monday as we found ourselves hanging out with our very own Honesty Box at Paddington Station.
A bright and breezy 5.00 am start saw the team out – including our very own David in the Darren the Bear suit – to see just how honest the average commuter is and just how much money they are prepared to give when they know it’s for a good cause.
The concept was pretty simple: to support the annual IKEA Soft Toys Campaign (in which IKEA donates £1 from every toy sold to the two charities), we thought it’d be cute to have an honesty box for a day at a major station, with passers by asked to pick up a toy and to donate what they felt appropriate.
At the same time owe decided to undertake a bit of a social experiment.
So we worked with the good people of MindLab to test a series of situations – whether people will give more if they know a charity is involved, whether they are more likely to give more when they think they’re being watched (in this case by a 6 foot bear) and whether people will be honest when they’re asked how much they gave.
Not only did the experience itself raise a heap of cash, therefore (well over £2,000 went to the charities), but it also grabbed some utterly lovely coverage – including this beauty on the Daily Telegraph.
Cracking work from team IKEA.
