The billboard ad campaign 'Every 30 minutes, we take as many lives as the Second World War took in 6 years' made some people angry. They were not angry at the number of animals bred, fattened, and systematically slaughtered for products we simply don’t need; they were angry that we dared to compare the number of animals killed with the number of people killed.
GEN V: Do you know how many animals are killed by the meat, egg, and dairy industries every year, every month, every day? The truth is way more shocking than any of us can conceive…
An estimated 70 billion land animals and 1-3 trillion sea animals are slaughtered for our consumption every year. That equates to around 60 million animals every 30 minutes, which is the number of lives that were lost during World War II – the largest and deadliest conflict in human history.
What’s perhaps even more shocking is that most of these animals have their lives taken away unnecessarily. We predominantly kill animals because we like how they taste and because it’s what we’ve always done – not because we need meat, eggs, or dairy to be healthy – because we don’t.
When we discovered this, we had to tell the world about this unimaginable scale of suffering. And so, we put up billboards in several European cities that were deeply affected by the second world war, including London, Manchester, Liverpool, and Milan.
When we tested this advert in the London Underground, we discovered it made some people angry. They were not angry at the number of animals bred, fattened, and systematically slaughtered for products we simply don’t need; they were angry that we dared to compare the number of animals killed with the number of people killed.
Our aim is to bring the scale of suffering and slaughter into sharp focus. We want only to provoke thought, discussion, and self-reflection, not to offend. Our hope is that people will start to see that ‘the little bit of chicken’ they have for dinner is part of a vast and very lucrative global trade that takes the lives of billions of animals every year, each one of them an individual, with a personality, preferences, friendships, and a will to live.
We know which part of the ad makes us angry and it drives us to advocate on behalf of all oppressed, harmed, and commodified beings, whether they are people or animals. Which part makes you angry? SOURCE…
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