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:
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.
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)
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.
The latest production methods to intrigue, entertain, excite… and sometimes to shock.
This Halloween, sit back, (try to) relax, and watch our 3 minute spooky short. Shot entirely at UP Studios, just for fun.
At UP, we work with charities from the very big to the very small. But for every project, our approach is the same: be bold, be memorable.
And in the case of video, we use the latest production methods – computer generated imagery, visual effects, live action and animation integration – to intrigue, entertain, excite… and sometimes to shock.
Need some inspiration? Here’s a selection of our favourite TED Talks.
We love these TED Talks thought-provoking and innovative messages, and hope you find yourself thoroughly energised after watching them. If not, maybe it’s time for another coffee.
The why and how of effective altruism – Peter Singer, philosopher and ethicist
What’s the most effective way to give? Peter talks through some surprising thought experiments to help you balance emotion and practicality – and make the biggest impact no matter what you can afford to share.
Peter argues that as well as feeling empathy…
“it’s important to use your head, to make sure that what you do is effective and well directed.”
How to start a movement – Derek Sivers, entrepreneur
A really snappy and fun take on how a movement really gets started using some pretty hilarious footage. But the message is clear:
“If you really care about starting a movement, have the courage to follow and show others how to follow.”
How to get your ideas to spread – Seth Godin, marketer and author
In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to just ignore the run of the mill stuff. Marketing guru Seth Godin spells out why, when it comes to getting our attention, it’s the ‘out there’ ideas that are most successful.
“The thing that’s going to decide what gets talked about, what gets done, what gets changed, what gets purchased, what gets built, is… Is it remarkable?”
How shocking events can spark positive change – Naomi Klein, journalist and activist
Naomi Klein asks why is it that some large scale crises jolt us awake like a collective alarm bell and inspire us to change and evolve, while others might jolt us a bit but then it’s back to sleep.
“The shocking events that fill us with dread today can transform us, and they can transform the world for the better … But first we need to picture the world that we’re fighting for.”
Why we need to imagine different futures – Anab Jain, futurist and designer
Anab Jain brings the future to life, creating experiences where people can touch, see and feel the potential of the world we’re creating.
Do we really want a world where intelligent machines patrol our streets, what would it actually feel like?
“These things are here and we often don’t understand how they work and what the consequences could be. We see this all around us, this difficulty in even imagining how the consequences of our actions today will affect our future.”
Jain’s projects show why it’s important to fight for the world we want.
Why it’s worth listening to people you disagree with – Zachary R Wood, Crusader for Dialogue
Wood learnt from his mother that there’s always something to learn from the perspectives of others, whether you agree with them or not.
“Tuning out opposing viewpoints doesn’t make them go away … to achieve progress in the face of adversity, we need a genuine commitment to gaining a deeper understanding of humanity.”
The business benefits of doing good – Wendy Woods, social impact strategist
Woods shares a fresh way to assess the impact all parts of business can have on all parts of society, and then adjust them to not only do less harm but actually improve things.
Learn more about how executives can move beyond corporate social responsibility to “total societal impact” – for the benefit of both a company’s bottom line and society at large.
“The only way we’re going to make substantial progress on the challenging problems of our time is for business to drive the solutions.”
