A controversial campaign by the cast of Game of Thrones to lobby governments to take in more refugees has missed a funding target by huge margin.
The PR push, an alliance between stars of the HBO series and the International Rescue Committee non-profit, hoped to amass $1 million by the season six launch on Sunday.
Leading figures including Lena Headey (who plays Cersei Lannister), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) and Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) appear in the video campaign.
Part of the cash raised will be spent by the International Rescue Committee on encouraging Europe and the US to take in as many as ten times the number of refugees that they have agreed to already – a prospect which sparked a fan backlash.
But as the first episode went to air, their grand total was at $264,500 – where it has been stuck for weeks.
The sum would buy you less than 90 seconds of screen time in Game of Thrones, which costs $10 million per show to film.
The campaign site now shows a new goal – the Season 6 finale – providing 10 more weeks to meet the target.
An executive at HBO was hesitant to discuss the fundraising target in a recent interview, when it became clear the $1million sum was unlikely to be reached.
Opinion turned on the campaign almost immediately as fans accused the show’s well-paid stars of failing to consider the realities of the mass movement of refugees, that has seen tensions in Europe skyrocket.
Negative comments piled up underneath campaign videos posted on the Game of Thrones Facebook page.
On Youtube, IRC staffers were so put out by the strength of opposition that they disabled all comments on their flagship video, which has more than three times as many “dislike” votes as “likes”.
Subsequent videos have struggled to break 10,000 pageviews, but still attracted overwhelmingly negative feedback.
The top-rated comment on one video is: “I wonder how many refugees they will be taking into their homes/neighborhoods.”
Although it is not advertised in the campaign clips, a portion of any cash donated to the IRC will go to their advocacy operation.
The non-profit wants the US to take in 100,000 refugees – ten times its current commitment – and Europe to accept 540,000 by 2021.
Heat Street offered the actors involved a chance to clarify their position, but none have taken up the offer.
