Adverts to promote veganism can sometimes be preachy or militant, or just too dry, but not this surprising animated advert from PETA. Quite the contrary, the animal rights nonprofit is out to show that veganism can deliver a moist stool that's as regular as a Japanese train.
It's brought one of our favourite emoji's to life in a surreal ad that shows piles of feces skateboarding, scratching, playing keytar, shaking their booty and generally living it up thanks to a plant-based diet (check out our guide to the best animation software if you want to make your own poopy masterpiece).
"Who better than singing poo to tell you what’s best for your bowels," PETA says of the ad on YouTube. "From less strain to more relief, being vegan is good sh*t." And so the ad features a chorus of poos singing about how happy they are in a blissful world populated by toilet-themed characters, including dancing rolls of toilet paper. There's even a catchy song.
Conceived by Samy Alliance and produced by the Buenos Aires-based character animation studio Flamboyant Paradise, directed by Javier Lourenço and Alvarez Ortega Bianchi, it could be an animation from Adult Swim. But despite the irreverent tone, the inspiration came from serious research, which suggests that many people suffer from constipation and other digestive problems due to a lack of plants in their diet.
PETA plans to use the animation on social media channels as well as in an out of home campaign and Spotify, all directing to a campaign page that provides details of the benefits of a vegan diet.
The ad is a surprising change of direction from the usual focus on ethical arguments for a plant-based diet. That could partly be recognition that people need a selfish motive to commit to a major lifestyle change, but it's also much more attention-grabbing, and fun too, making the ad more likely to stand out on social media (see our pick of the best adverts of all time for more inspiration).
