One/x has released a new stop-motion animation advertisement for Farm Sanctuary demonstrating the intelligence of pigs and telling people to go vegan.
All the characters in the spot were created with folded paper in an attempt to marry form and function, exemplifying the theme of “pigs going from being seen as one-dimensional beings—which makes it easier for people to justify their exploitation—to the emotionally and cognitively complex, multi-dimensional beings they truly are.” The spot shows a pig beating both a chimpanzee and young child at a video game while quoting university studies that found pigs excelled over chimps and three-year old children at video games involving a joystick. It concludes with the tagline (perhaps borrowed from great white shark Bruce’s fish eating mantra in Finding Nemo), “Pigs are friends, not food” before a “Go Vegan” message pops up.
While the spot cleverly demonstrates the intelligence of pigs, in a visually striking way, there’s not a lot to support the leap from “Pigs are smart” to “Go Vegan.” Plenty of other animals people eat really do seem to lack intelligence. As Werner Herzog said, “Look into the eyes of a chicken and you will see real stupidity. It is a kind of bottomless stupidity, a fiendish stupidity. They are the most horrifying, cannibalistic and nightmarish creatures in the world.” Still, if convincing people that pigs are intelligent creatures and not mindless bacon machines was the main intent, then One/x has done a good job here. Credits after the jump.Credits:
Director: Melanie Mandl
Copywriter: Jean Rhode
Copywriter: Kelly Beck-Byrnes
Executive Creative Director: Jason Wulfsohn
Director of Strategy: Ben Tiernan
Junior Art Director: Belinda Sumali
Voice Over Talent: Amanda Philipson
Color Correction: David Smith
VO Recording: Sonicpool Post Production
Production Design: Melanie Mandl
Set Decorator: Zarouhi Mazmanyan
Character Design: Melanie Mandl, Robbie Mehring
Model Makers: Zarouhi Mazmanyan, Henry Kamp
Lighting Designer: Mark Mervis
Animated by: Melanie Mandl
“Farm Runner” video game designed by: Henry Kamp
Compositing/ Rotoscoping: Henry Kamp
Mixed by: David Bach
Music Composed by: J. William Adkins
Special Thanks: Somewhere Something, All Sets, Brandon Fusco, Dean Styers, Keystone Art Space, Victoria Foraker, Tommi Zabrecky