“Our compassion should not just be for the cute and cuddly. We know so much more than previous generations about the way fish experience pain and distress, and we have […]
“Our compassion should not just be for the cute and cuddly. We know so much more than previous generations about the way fish experience pain and distress, and we have a responsibility to treat them decently and humanely.”John Flack, MEP
This sentiment encapsulates our exhibition for Compassion in World Farming’s #RethinkFish at the European Parliament last month. Because while most people understand that fish feel pain, there is still a sad lack of empathy for these creatures.
So, the exhibition stand seeks to challenge what we thought we knew about fish, and why it’s time to rethink how we treat them. As you walk around the stand, you first learn about the extraordinary parallels between us and fish, including some amazing stories, and then how they are farmed. Currently fish are the only farmed animal not covered by European Farm Animal Welfare protection.
“Fascinating and deeply moving new campaign from @ciwf. Fish are sensitive, intelligent, emotional animals. They feel pain, they use tools and they form social bonds. But fish also need protecting. It’s time to #RethinkFish”. Stephen Fry, actor, comedian and writer
The opening event was a great success, 9 MEPs spoke and another 20 officially supported the #RethinkFish initiative.
Photo Op: MEPs at the European Parliament ‘caught’ in the netFrench Green MEP Damien Carême kissing our life-size salmonInside the fish crates is a video showing how long it takes sea bass to dieThe outside of the stand highlights the characteristics of these amazing creatures
Chickens deserve better! Check out our campaign for Better Chicken Welfare for CIWF
Grow fast, die young: the life of a modern factory farmed chicken.
Over 1 billion chickens are raised for meat in the UK each year, the majority are bred to grow unnaturally fast and spend their short lives trapped in oversized bodies.
This spring we worked with Compassion in World Farming to create a social media campaign to raise awareness of the suffering of factory farmed chickens.
A series of funny videos pose the question: “You wouldn’t do that to a cat, so why do it to a chicken?”
The ‘basket’ post (below) achieved 42% engagement rate on Facebook, and 9% of users who saw the ad viewed the video in full – very strong for a 21 second video!
The campaign aims to encourage those who eat chicken to choose ‘better’ chicken, or no chicken at all! To help people make an informed choice, we created an online and offline Happy Chick-o-meter, which rates the chicken labels in supermarkets.
Below, our ‘flip-book’ social media animation demonstrates the shocking rate of growth since the 1960s:
Intensive farming, fuelled by consumer demand for cheap meat, is one of the biggest drivers of species extinction and biodiversity loss on the planet.
Many people are aware that wild animals across the globe are threatened by extinction. However, few know that intensive farming, fuelled by consumer demand for cheap meat, is one of the biggest drivers of species extinction and biodiversity loss on the planet.
On 22nd May 2017, CIWF launched their #StopTheMachine campaign at the Natural History Museum. We created a striking exhibition stand which will tour around the UK and Europe over the next 12 months. The stand is a ‘Big Red Box’ which opens to reveal the devastating truth behind intensive animal farming.
And what about that life-size paper jaguar? He is the work of the amazing Wolfram of www.paperwolf.de
The campaign launch was attended by celebrities, journalists and NGOs. Keynote speakers included award-winning wildlife expert Simon King OBE, leading British environmentalist Tony Juniper, Bill Oddie, Evanna Lynch, conservationist Stanley Johnson and the naturalist and great-great grandson of Charles Darwin, Chris Darwin.
See more pictures of the exhibition and watch the launch film (produced by Andrew Davies / CampaignFilm.com)
Imagine if cars were invisible? More than half of Londoners think you can always see when pollution is bad in the capital – when in fact many pollutants are invisible […]
Imagine if cars were invisible?
More than half of Londoners think you can always see when pollution is bad in the capital – when in fact many pollutants are invisible and can be present in air that looks ‘clean’. And more than 50 per cent of London’s toxic air pollution is caused by… vehicles. [Source: london.gov.uk]
And there are plenty more scary facts: did you know London’s Oxford Street is the most polluted street on earth [Source: telegraph.co.uk].
Above is a short, fun animation we’ve produced to shine a light on the issue.
Animation can bring concepts to life that text or live videos can’t
#CarFreeDay
Working in London ourselves, we’re ecstatic about London’s Car Free Day this Sunday 22 September, encouraging everyone to cycle, walk, use public transport, and party!
Mental Health Awareness Week runs from 13-19 May 2019.
One in four of us experience mental health issues. For some, it is debilitating.
We made this hard-hitting short film as part of our Passion Projects series, our soapbox from which we use in-house resources to highlight an issue we feel, well, passionate about.
Shot on Red Epic at UP Studios, with the generous help of Eve Anderson.
What with celebrating over 25 years of helping the planet one creative project at a time, we decided to revisit three projects from three decades.
We’ll gloss over the fact that we’re probably the only Vegan creative agency in London: today we’re in a reflective kind of mood.
Let’s go back, way back…
Three things you probably didn’t know about UP
We’re 100% vegan run, and we have been this way since 1984 (when soya milk came in powder form – bleugh!)
We cut our teeth working for corporates, such as Barclaycard, Royal Mail, Compaq, TSB and Thomas Cook. Ultimately we decided to stop doing that and brought this expertise to the charitable and beyond profit world.
As well as our campaign creation know-how, we also have a fully equipped film production studio in Central London. It’s a great space to test out and realise our creative ideas.
We have created brands, campaigns and campaign videos for a massive range of charities, including: Save The Children, Christian Aid, The Vegan Society, World Animal Protection, RSPB, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Compassion in World Farming, The Vegetarian Society, The Humane Society, Four Paws and Cruelty Free International.
We really have put the right into right-on.
Three projects; Three decades
So, as we’ve been crafting creative campaigns for the Animal Welfare sector since the 1990s, let’s take a snapshot from each decade.
1990s – Stop Animal Testing
First stop the 1990s, when grunge and faux fur was all the rage and Cruelty Free International (then BUAV) wanted to refresh their image to appeal to a younger audience and raise more funds through their merchandise range.
Using the simple slogan “Stop Animal Testing” we created three defiant animal characters to head up the brand.
We then designed and produced an extensive range of merchandise included clothing, mugs, badges, key fobs and pens.
While it’s hard to pin any one outcome on a long term advocacy campaign, we like to think the banning of cosmetics testing in Europe was one of the most significant wins for BUAV.
It’s hard to imagine now how the idea of animals having ‘rights’ was such an underground concept.
Along with generating much needed income to help achieve a change in this attitude, we also like to think the campaign helped raise the bar a little on the expectations people had for an animal rights campaign, which were often crude and aggressive.
2000s – Handle With Care
The noughties kicked in and it was time for us to shape an important global campaign working towards an end to the long distant transport of live animals.
Working with Derek Humphries, we launched the WSPA-led (now WAP) Handle with Care campaign in 2008 by commissioning a double decker bus with each window showing animals crammed inside. It was then driven across London, landing up in Trafalgar Square.
Inside the bus were undercover videos of animal enduring horrific journeys, the sounds of the distressed animals could be heard from outside. It was a powerful approach, putting people in place of the animals, asking them to feel the experience and make a connection.
The campaign highlighted four of the worst routes: sheep from Australia and New Zealand to the Middle East, cattle from Brazil to Lebanon, horses from Spain to Italy and Pigs from Canada to Hawaii.
The campaign also achieved several notable successes leading to real change, including:
Removing the Misleading “Island Produced Pork” Label
As a result of the campaign’s legal petition to the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, the misleading “Island Produced Pork” label was removed from Hawaii retailers’ products. The label misleadingly implied that live animals transported from Canada and mainland U.S. to be slaughtered in Hawaii were born and raised on the islands.
Stopping sheep exports from New Zealand to Saudi Arabia
The coalition swiftly mobilised national and international support for animals when news broke of a possible resumption in sheep exports from New Zealand to Saudi Arabia. The result: resumption is now off the table, saving at least 50,000 sheep a year from a horrific three-week long journey.
2017 – StopTheMachine
Fast forward to our current decade, and alongside DTV we took on the StopTheMachine global campaign for Compassion in World Farming, highlighting the link between factory farming and wildlife loss.
We created the name and a strong identity and iconic graphics showing elephants, jaguars and penguins being sucked out of their natural environment into the ‘machine’.
To launch the campaign, we designed and built a bespoke exhibition stand – a vast red box which opens to reveal the horror inside.
The stand also incorporates a strong photo op – a life-size leaping paper jaguar – which was hugely successful at the Natural History Museum launch.
The exhibition continues to tour, taking its bold message across the UK and Europe throughout 2018-19.
And here we are, with Gillian Egan, at the launch.
Of course there’s still plenty to campaign for, so keep the UP team on speed dial for compelling Campaigns, Campaign Brands and Campaign Videos. It really can change everything.
