Red River Farm is education disguised as entertainment. A fictional TV show, featuring a band of abused animals, it re-educates the public about using animal products in fashion.

Instead of a 30 second, finger-waggy charity PSA, we made our campaign into a classic TV show, complete with a famous friendly host, loveable but grotesque puppets and a punchy sing-a-long song. It engaged our audience in a completely new way - they stopped scrolling and watched the whole 2 1/2 minute episode.

Just like the best children's TV shows, Red River Farm teaches an important lesson but in an entertaining way.

Every year more than 1 billion animals are slaughtered for their skins.

Many of the clothes, shoes and accessories that we wear come from cows, sheep, birds and snakes that are bred for their skin and wool and often suffer in horrific circumstances.

The UK is a nation of animal lovers, and recent years have seen a huge rise in people adopting vegan eating behaviours. However, this concern for animal welfare simply was not translating to their clothing choices, because the grim reality was easy to forget or ignore.

Our objective was to raise awareness of this issue amongst young people aged 25-40 and encourage them to make vegan clothing choices.

However, having previously relied on shock tactics in advertising, the public were switching off to PETA’s messages. We needed to find a softer way to tap into our audience’s compassion for animals, while maintaining impact.

Our audience were not uncaring people. Quite the opposite. Issues including climate change; veganism and fast fashion loomed large on their agenda. In fact, they were so bombarded with urgent causes that their cognitive load was full.

By contrast, the issue of clothing origins felt remote. It doesn’t make headlines and we’re not taught about it. Indeed, while meat and fur are clearly sourced at an animal’s expense, wool and leather have a less immediate visual link so it’s easy to forget where these products come from.

We needed to close that gap and make the link between animal cruelty and the clothes we wear impossible to ignore. To re-educate in a way people want to engage with, without finger-wagging or preaching.

With no media spend, we needed a newsworthy idea that would engage publishers; inspire animal-loving influencers with engaged platforms; and challenge news and education platforms to do better.

‘Red River Farm’ is a classic children’s TV show but with a twist. The cute puppet protagonists are actually a band of abused animals here to re-educate the public about using animal products in fashion.

Set on a farm reminiscent of classic children’s TV shows of bygone decades, actress and comedian Jessie Cave meets wholesome, seemingly cheery puppet animals who burst into an upbeat, catchy, yet gruesome song about the cruel treatment they endure in the name of fashion.

By taking our audience back to their childhood, we can finally teach them the lesson they should have been taught - if it’s made from animals, it’s made from cruelty.

The film makes the connection between clothes and the animals they came from. It’s still shocking and emotional but it’s presented in a fresh, engaging way that keeps viewers watching instead of turning off. It’s education disguised as entertainment.

To make it feel like an authentic children’s TV show, every element was crafted to transport us back to that era. We designed loveable puppets but with a twist. Striking the balance of cute vs gruesome so our audience still empathised. Their wounds reflected the real trauma these animals experience and were voiced by comedians to add more character. The song and original music was upbeat and catchy making the juxtaposing lyrics hit hard with our message. And we had a friendly, naive celebrity TV host who doesn’t know what’s about to hit her. Camera angles, lighting, a 2D monochromatic set design, a vintage grade. Even the hand drawn opening titles grabbed people’s attention from the start. So over the next 2 ½ minutes, our viewers came on the emotional journey and watched the entire episode.

It ran on owned social channels and National online press on 22/03/23.

With zero media budget, our strategy was to generate reach through relevance and connection with the idea.

We created a newsworthy film to ensure interest from the biggest publishers. It was picked up by titles including the Daily Mail and Metro, with a combined reach of 115 million and an estimated 820K views.

We created resonance with some of the UK’s largest influencers, reaching the networks of: Gemma Collins (2.2m), Jessy Barden (2.1m) and Shabaz Says (1m) among others and generating over 400k views.

We asked traditional media outlets to do better. PETA wrote to CBBC (the UK’s key children’s TV channel) challenging them to broadcast the video to teach children the grim reality and generating PR just for asking.

This increased awareness also changed opinions, with comments like:

“Feels like veganism is too focused on the food aspects and people forget the other ways animals are exploited”

In the UK, like most countries, Children’s TV shows are used to educate the young about the facts of life. But, for obvious reasons, they are only told the palatable version. Take wool, for example, we are taught that it’s merely a haircut and that the sheep don’t mind using their hair to make woolly jumpers. And for things like leather, well, that’s just left off the syllabus all together.

We carry this rose tinted view into adulthood. Never questioning what we were told or choosing ignorance over facing up to the real truth. For some things in life, it’s easier to believe the things we were taught when we were young.