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Animal rights collective Surge has launched its second poster campaign of 2019 in London.
The new campaign features a poster with a picture of a pig taken in a standard UK pig farm with the question, “can we really call ourselves a nation of animal lovers?”
The posters, which can be found in some of the busiest underground stations in London, including Oxford Circus, will have been seen by more than three quarters of a million people by the end of the campaign.
Animal farming
The new campaign follows Surge’s previous work, which has sought to highlight animal exploitation.
The imaging and question reflect the messaging from Surge’s 2017 documentary Land of Hope and Glory, which featured undercover footage of UK animal farming.
Surge’s first poster campaign this year featured questions including, ‘what has higher value, taste or life?”, on the side of London buses, as well as a huge electronic billboard down Shoreditch High Street, which featured an image of a piglet and a puppy asking the question, “what’s the difference?”
A nation of animal lovers?
“In the UK we pride ourselves on being a nation of animal lovers, yet everyday millions of animals are suffering because of the choices that we make,” Ed Winters, Co-founder of Surge, said in a statement sent to Plant Based News.
“Our aim with these advertisements is to hopefully encourage people to realize the contradictions of claiming to love animals whilst also paying for animals to be killed on our behalf.”
Reality of animal farming
According to Winters, this latest campaign has a darker tone than its first, in order to put the grim reality of animal agriculture in front of the public.
“It was really important to us that we shone a light on the reality of what is happening to animals,” he added. “When you stand and look over the platform at the poster it’s almost like you are looking directly into the farm itself, it exists as a window into a place that is normally hidden from view.
“The image, without being graphic, shows the brutality of the industry and the fear that nonhuman animals feel everyday of their lives. The emotion in the eyes of the pig is so undeniable and the way the pig is looking straight ahead creates an instant connection between the victim and the consumer. The question then becomes, in that situation would you help or hurt the pig?”
This campaign was funded by donations to Surge as well as from proceeds from Surge’s restaurant in Hoxton, Unity Diner.
