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Eating animal meat is going out of fashion among an increasing number of people adopting vegan or plant-based diets. Now, the charity People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is urging people to give up wearing animals, too.
The organization’s new campaign highlights animal cruelty in fashion and asks consumers to stop buying and wearing all animal-based products, even wool. PETA is known for its provocative advertising, but this time that shock factor is hidden within a nostalgic form of entertainment.
PETA’s film, created by U.K. agency House 337, parodies a classic children’s TV show from the 1980s or ’90s. British actress and comedian Jessie Cave stars in the singalong set at fictional Red River Farm, where she meets a cast of cheerful puppet animals, including a sheep, chicken and cow.
The cute farm animals sing an upbeat tune, but their lyrics contain a dark message about the cruel treatment they endure in the name of fashion. The sheep reveals an open wound on its back, while the cow sings merrily of being “branded and abused” as “fashion’s the excuse.”
After Cave meets a brutalized snake, the animals return to the scene and urge viewers to share the truth about animal cruelty in fashion. Cave leaves the farm in tears.
“Shop like their lives depend on it,” the ad’s endline says. “Don’t buy wool, feather or leather.”
PETA’s campaign will run for the next two years on social media channels, including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
Will Wightman directed the film through production company BlinkInk.
Playing on nostalgia
PETA asked House 337 to create “a powerful, memorable and shareable” video that would encourage people to embrace vegan fashion, the agency’s creative director Steve Hawthorne told Adweek.
The organization also aimed to challenge people’s common misperceptions about how clothing is made.
“Many views on how animals are used to make clothes are outdated and seen through a nostalgic lens of what people get taught in school,” Hawthorne explained. “Our film directly challenges the idea that there is something wholesome about the use of animals to make clothes.”
Playing on that nostalgic lens, the agency arrived at the idea of creating a faux children’s show that mixes entertainment with education.
