The Pilion Trust, a charity which helps some of the poorest and most vulnerable, has conducted a social experiment on the people of London to see if we really do care about those who are less fortunate.

A man wearing a sign saying “Fuck the poor” was sent out to the streets of the capital as part of a campaign for the charity by advertising agency Publicis. Londoners were secretly filmed taking the man to task for the offensive statement.

Afterwards, the man flipped his sign over so that it read “Help the poor” and he proceeded to ask for donations – but this time people completely ignored him.

The film of the social experiment was posted on YouTube and released in cinemas.

The campaign message is: “We know you care. Please care enough to give.”

Savvas Panas, the Chief Executive of the Pilion Trust, said: “As a charity that has been severely affected by the nationwide decrease in charitable donations (20%) and Government cuts (60%).

“We understand that some may be shocked by this footage. We are more offended however, that people across the United Kingdom are living in adverse poverty.”

Andy Bird, Executive Creative Director of Publicis said, “The Pilion Trust is a small front line charity without the budget to make itself heard in paid-for media, and also loses out on high street donations, so we helped them to make a film that highlighted the discrepancy between peoples attitude when confronted with injustice and bigotry about poverty, and then their apathy when asked directly to help do something about it – donate.’