Last Chance for Animals
"Bad Jobs"
Problem: People patronize circuses that use animals without realizing that circus animals are abused.
Barriers: People naturally turn away from sad or graphic messages. People often view animal rights groups as radical and unsympathetic to human rights issues.
Insight: People are much more likely to feel empathy if they can more easily relate to the situation.
Solution: By comparing animals in the circus to having a bad job, the campaign can create empathy without causing people to turn away or comparing it to real human tragedy.
The Work:
For the print campaign, actual photos of animals in the circus are compared to common workplace complaints.
People can use their mobile devices to scan QR codes on the posters to get more information about the particluar cruelty displayed in each poster ad.
Guerrilla ads disguised to look like wanted ads are placed in newspapers, online job-search websites, and craigslist. The ads feature the 20 biggest circuses that use and abuse animals, and draw attention to how unfairly the animal "employees" are treated.
An Instagram campaign encourages users to take photos of the guerrilla "wanted ads" and post them with the hashtag #LCAcircuses2avoid. This creates an easy and accessible online list of circuses that abuse animals.
Finally, a LinkedIn account for a circus bear named Baloo details the cruelties that many circus animals face. People can connect with Baloo on LinkedIn and share the connection with friends in order to spread awareness of the problem.
Click on the photo to see Baloo Bear's LinkedIn profile.
