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1. Social Action and Community
Media
Existing Product Research

2. Case Study: Kentucky Fried Cruelty (PETA)
Purpose:
This is a globally aimed campaign, pretty much every country has fast
food like KFC, plus the campaign is in Canadian French and Spanish
too which shows it’s not just aimed at a national audience, but a global
one.
It’s also to change attitudes towards KFC, the
campaign/advertisements are there to discourage fans of the fast food
company and provide the information to do so, they do this by raising
awareness of animal cruelty during the food preparation process to the
public; in the hopes that it will encourage them not to join their campaign
against KFC’s cruelty to animals. Because of this it also challenges
dominant representations and agendas, it’s making quite a popular
food source show it’s true colours and revealing to the public how they
really go through the food preparation process in the hope that KFC will
change the way they treat their animals.
In a way it would create a community, a collection of people from
various different locations (because of the global appeal) would come
together to raise awareness and campaign against KFC with many
others alongside them, this can also infiltrate mainstream media as, if
it get’s enough attention on social media or something like that, the
campaign could achieve other forms of media coverage, like a news
story and so on.
It’s also to build a relationship with the subjects, because of the
message and the community spirit, it would build quite important
relationships that people within the campaign can depend on and the
overall appeal can be spread through word-of-mouth recommendation
which can also gain media coverage and of course, it’s to campaign.
Aims:
The aims are to raise awareness about animal cruelty within the fast
food industry, especially focusing on KFC. Due to the awareness, it
should achieve media coverage and discourage fans of the products to
continue visiting there, thus creating a decline in consumers and a
problem for the business, which might force them to change the way
they treat the animals. 2Creative Media Production 2012

3. Techniques:
They have used quite a range of techniques in here to get the point across: they have cleverly
named their campaign, ‘Kentucky Fried Cruelty’ as a word play for the acronym, KFC (Kentucky
Fried Chicken) this would entice viewers by itself as it’s quite a clever, humorous slogan that
would intrigue or interest the public.
Another piece of the text included on the campaign poster is the writing at the top, ‘The
Colonel’s Secret Recipe: Live Scalding, painful Debeaking, Crippled Chickens’ which is pretty
powerful – it further informs the public on what the campaign is about, that piece alone is
enough to grab someone’s attention, it’s risky and to the point. It doesn’t mess around, it tells
the viewers straight away what they are expecting the campaign to be about.
The last bit of text is the contact information and the logo of PETA which is the organisation
running the campaign. All of the text is in blue or a light red, the font is very clear and easy to
read along with a difference in font size, e.g. the name of the campaign, ‘KFC Cruelty’ is in
large, bold lettering whereas the rest of the writing is significantly smaller, especially the contact
information. Not only is this text putting a point across but it does it with a range of emotive
language, ‘painful’, ‘scalding’, ‘crippled’.
The image used in this campaign poster is KFC’s own mascot, ‘The Colonel’ with a horrendous
expression plastered on his face as he stares menacingly down at a bloody chicken, held by the
feet in his hands whilst the animal is in distress, the Colonel holds a blood stained knife towards
it with the intention of harming it whilst it’s still alive, all whilst wearing blood splattered clothes,
showing that this is not the only chicken - or animal - he has performed this act on. It’s a very
powerful image which catches the eye and makes a viewer question what is going on.
The overall design of the campaign poster is very simple, it involves a lot of red which clearly
insinuates danger, the use of that colour along with the image used shows just how malicious
and wrong the actual act they’re campaigning about is. When a viewer see’s the colour red, they
immediately associate it with danger, which could entice many viewers and after seeing the
poster, they could end up reading up on the topic, which should enthuse them to join the
campaign and help out. I feel like they used a white background to further make the red in the
design stand out, or it could be because the colour white is generally associated with innocence,
I find it quite interesting that they’ve used a white background in something so serious, other
than to make the red stand out. 3
Creative Media Production 2012
Case Study: Kentucky Fried Cruelty (PETA)

4. Impact: There has been some success during the campaign, in
Canada it was called off after PETA reached an agreement with the
company that coordinated the purchase of chickens so that it will
‘dramatically reduce the suffering of the millions of chickens killed for
Canadian KFC’s.’ Most of the KFC’s in Canada are also introducing a
‘vegan faux-chicken option’ – though this is one success, the campaign
carries on in other countries.
Worldwide Humane Organisations are uniting against KFC, who is
refusing to ‘eliminate the worst abuses suffered by the more than 850
million birds slaughtered for its restaurants each year…’ they are
demanding that KFC adopt PETA’s recommendations which are actually
the same as the ones made by KFC’s own animal welfare board, joining
them are organisations like: The Humane Society of the United States,
Animal Right’s International, Vegan Outreach, The Animal Welfare Trust,
Clayton County Humane Society, Assisi Animal Foundation and many
more.
PETA managed to purchase stock in the parent company, Yum! Brands,
which allows them to attend KFC’s annual meetings, submit shareholder
resolutions including, ‘eliminating the worst abuses that its chickens
suffer.’ This has actually earned them national media attention.
A lawsuit was filed by PETA in July 2003 which accuses KFC of false
advertising which was based on information about the treatment of it’s
animals. They forced KFC to stop lying to the public, though KFC did not
agree to improve chicken welfare and continues to mislead the
consumers and media about how the chickens are treated.
They have gained celebrity support from stars like: Pamela Anderson,
the Dalai lama and more. These significant figures have spoken out
against the cruelty that KFC enforces upon its chickens, this would be a
main source of attraction for world wide media coverage and really helps
get PETA’s message across. 4Creative Media Production 2012
Case Study: Kentucky Fried Cruelty (PETA)
http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com/index.asp
Source

5. Case Study: The Fight against Homophobia (Quebec)
Purpose:
It’s more of a local campaign for Quebec in Canada, however, I feel it
could become a national thing over time. It’s local because the Minister
of Justice was given the responsibility by the Quebec government to
fight against homophobia.
The idea is definitely to change attitudes and raise awareness, this is
because the topic of homophobia isn’t usually a vastly covered thing by
mainstream media, to raise awareness would be a good starting point in
effectively destroying all remains of homophobia. Changing attitudes is
the hard part, religions or cultural ideals that restrict homophobic acts
are the only things getting in the way, eliminating this and focusing on
changing people’s perceptions on gay people and their agenda would
really help sway attitudes.
It definitely challenges dominant representations and agendas, people
with set feelings and views on those who are gay, bi, lesbian,
transgender, transsexual or asexual will be quite hard to persuade,
especially if those views are bad, the purpose of this campaign is to
change those feelings and views to eliminate homophobia completely in
the Quebec area.
This is definitely strengthening a community, it’s bringing people who
support those of a different sexual orientation together to help and
support those who are in need of it, homophobia is a giant issue that is
severely under recognised.
It also provides information as it releases advertisements and
campaigns which gives a view on how those people may be feeling
whilst it also manages to make viewers ask themselves whether they
are actually open to sexual diversity.
It’s there as a campaign and to build relationships with subjects, it
speaks to the audience, to the sexually diverse people and makes them
question themselves, which in turn makes them think about how the
sexually diverse people are thinking.
Aims:
The aim is for the Quebec government to ensure the rights of lesbians,
gays, bisexuals, transgenders and transsexuals in Quebec society. It’s
also to eliminate homophobia and raise awareness for the support of
LGBT people.
5Creative Media Production 2012
Source:
http://www.justice.gouv.qc.ca/english/ministere/dossiers/
homophobie/homophobie-a.htm

6. Techniques:
They used quite a simple design with quite a powerful question behind it, the ad features white, simple, clear to
read font on top of a black sort of banner, the question it asks is: ‘Open, are you… really?’ Sectioning off the
writing like that, starting with ‘Open’ on the top and followed by the question on the bottom catches the attention
of viewers, especially considering the font colour is bright against the black background which has been used to
symbolise that there is a serious undertone to the question.
Using punctuation effectively like they have done here can really set a tone, from the use of ellipses – even
though it’s already a question – it makes you think even more, it makes you question your original answer, not
only that but it can be perceived in a few different ways, when looking at this ad, it’s a little hard to understand
what they mean by ‘open’ it would take a bit of thinking to understand what it is the ad is truly trying to get
across here. It’s a very powerful tool that they have managed to use effectively to get this response from it’s
viewers.
The rest of the text featured on the ad is the website address for the campaign, it’s a smaller font in front of a
black banner which shows that it’s related to the previous text which would draw attention to it after reading the
question.
The image is of two men sat side by side looking at something they have a similar interest in, after reading the
question, some viewers may not understand and take to the internet to find out more about what it means, they
would then go through the experience that the website puts you through when you first visit, it doesn’t give
much away at first but gives you an interactive quiz, the first question asks your gender – there is the option to
be anonymous. It then gives you a question which multiple choice answers, the first introduces a little boy
drawing a picture of two females, the question is: This little guy loves his two mommies. Does this bother you?
The multiple choice includes: Not at all, a little and a lot. The questions continue with others, like: Lucy has
always been a kind, smiley person. But Lucy hasn’t always been Lucy. She used to be Luke. Does this bother
you? The same multiple choice answers appear. The scenario betwixt the two men in the original
advertisement appear, it mentions that these men have a similar interest and a similar lifestyle and asks if it
bothers you. Once the quiz is finished, it takes you to a page where you can share the website address on
places like Facebook and Twitter along with a short explanation of what the campaign is trying to achieve, this
is further explained on another page of the website: ‘Understanding’ and ‘Resources’.
This technique and questionnaire from their website is the question that the ad is asking you, are you open
about how you actually feel about sexually diverse people and it makes them question whether they really are,
this can open eyes or it can tell people what they already know, which is why the ‘Understanding’ and
‘Resources’ area is so important, it gives information on the different types of abuse that sexually diverse
people go through and how it effects them, why they’re running the campaign and why homophobia should be
stopped. 6
Case Study: The Fight against Homophobia (Quebec)

7. Impact:
Most of the impacts are pretty political, one of the first things to happen
was the Quebec government granting four hundred and thirty thousand
dollars to assist LGBT community organisations, this was decided on
April 2, 2013 when the minister of Justice (also in charge for the fight
against homophobia) spoke on the governments behalf announcing the
money as ‘complementary financial assistance’ to ‘help gay, lesbian,
bisexual, transsexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals.’
The minister of justice (also in charge for the fight against homophobia)
announced the award of one hundred and sixty six thousand, eight
hundred and twenty five dollars for the financial assistance of eleven
organisations who ‘implement projects to promote the wellbeing of sexual
minority members, especially young people, seniors, Aboriginals,
transsexuals and transgenders.’ This was set up on the 28th march 2013.
On May 20th 2011, eleven government departments took on the
‘Government Action Plan against Homophobia 2011-2016’ which
presents 60 measures designed to provide active social, community and
professional support for individuals in the LGBT community’ as well as
raising awareness and knowledge about the sexually diverse. The 4 main
measures are: ‘set up a university research chair on homophobia’,
‘organise Quebec-wide information-raising campaigns about
homophobia’, ‘increase financial support for community organisations
promoting and defending the rights of sexual minorities’, ‘establish an
office to combat homophobia.’
There was also the ‘Quebec Policy Against Homophobia’ which was
launched in December 2009, there are four main guidelines each with a
strategic set of choices that targets specific objectives: ‘recognise the
realities faced by sexual minority members’, ‘promote respect for the
rights of sexual minority members’, ‘promote wellbeing’ and ‘ensure a
concerted approach.’ 7Creative Media Production 2012
Case Study: The Fight against Homophobia (Quebec)

8. Case Study: Plant for the Planet
Purpose:
To bring about global change, this is quite easily given away by the name of the actual
organisation, ‘plant for the planet’ it’s not aimed at one particular nation, country or place,
it’s aimed at the planet. Not only that but it isn’t directed at anyone (town, city etc.) in
particular, everywhere has power plants, cars, planes and other things that cause harm
to the environment, the campaign is aiming at a world wide audience and doing it with a
very powerful image.
The images and information included within the ad is there to raise awareness,
campaign and provide information – it raises the awareness of environmental damage, it
provides the reader with the information that ‘every leaf traps CO2’, it’s campaigning to
gain donations to plant tree’s to make the world we live in a better place.
I feel they’ve managed to create access to media production for non-traditional groups,
you don’t hear a lot about the planting of tree’s other than for the toilet paper, Velvet TV
advertisement. The point I’m trying to put across is that the whole campaign for planting
more tree’s or saving tree’s isn’t as big as other campaigns, they aim at children all
across the world which is quite an interesting target to go for, children aren’t aimed at
generally when it comes to campaigns, but this one is, it’s also not a very common thing
to come across, but Plant for the Planet have managed to get themselves out there,
using traditional methods like this as a starting point and then ending up on non-
traditional media methods.
This is also creates and strengthens a community, it would create one because initially
the organisation came together with aims and ideas and things to discuss and finally
after running their campaign and getting their products out there, it’s created a
community that have come together and strengthened over time to create a global
community.
It could be seen to build relationships with subjects as it’s aimed at the public who would
read the message, look more in to it and then become involved – possibly by donating
something or joining the campaign altogether.
To infiltrate mainstream media would be an admirable aim for them – they’d have social
networking pages and their own website to go to, this could develop further and it could
become a TV news story or an article/advertisement in a magazine or newspaper could
appear.
Aims:
The campaign was inspired by Wangari Maathai who planted 30 million trees in Africa in
30 years. For children to plant one million tree’s in every country to offset CO2 emissions
and effectively save the Earth or make the environment a better place to live in with less
CO2 and more clean oxygen. 8Creative Media Production 2012
http://www.plant-for-the-planet.org/en/about-us/aims-and-vision
Source

9. Techniques:
There is a very small amount of text on each advertisement, it features the logo of the organisation, Plant for
the Planet along with the information, ‘Every leaf traps CO2’ and underneath that, a link to their website where
the viewer can make a donation, as the ad suggests.
The logo by itself is pretty powerful, it’s a tree made up of what looks like 3 people with their hands in the air
standing beside each other to form the branches, whilst the title, ‘Plant for the planet’ is in bold, white letters
with a green outline on top of it. All of the text included on the advertisement is in a light green, this is to match
the issue at hand which is dealing with the environment, which naturally is associated with this colour.
The overall style of the advertisement is very simple and basic, which shows that it’s quite blunt and straight to
the point, but it’s still as effective as an advert that is jam packed full of information and images to go with it.
The background is white or slightly yellowed paper with the main focus of the image in the middle and the logo
and the rest of the writing in the bottom, Left hand corner.
The image is also very simple, but it’s very clever and really manages to get the point across. They use a leaf,
or a few different leaves placing them in the centre of the photograph, these leaves have been disfigured to
look like cut outs – this includes, a factory producing a lot of smoke as shown in the first example of the ad,
another is the aeroplane that looks like it’s about to land or it’s just taken off with a lot of smoke behind it and
the last one is a variety of different cars, buses, vans etc. going round in a spiral, the cars getting smaller the
further in to the spiral you go.
All of these are making a very clear point, they’re showing that a single leaf traps CO2 and it can really damage
them, this is quite effective for this kind of campaign because whilst being very aesthetically pleasing and very
clever, it draws attention and makes the viewers question, which leads to them going to the website, which
could indeed lead them to joining the campaign or donating so that more tree’s can be planted worldwide. The
overall design is so simple because it’s a very simple point to get across.
9
Case Study: Plant for the Planet

10. Impact:
Though the advertisements are probably not the sole reason the
campaign has gained so much success, it’s still a factor that goes
towards it.
Obviously, looking at the statistics, they have had quite a bit of success
when it comes to this campaign. The goal was to plan 14,000,000,000
tree’s per country, they have almost reached it with 13012961958.
They’ve very much involved the participators in this, by including ‘YOU’ in
their ads, for example the ‘WE set a target of ONE billion trees. YOU
planted TWO billion’ which would have a very positive impact on their
viewers and participlants.
They’ve managed to grab a lot of media attention, on their section of the
UNEP website there is a link to their multimedia pieces, the videos
include: press releases, people planting tree’s all over the world, tree
planting in Nairobi, Kenya to celebrate Valentine’s day, the actual first
introduction of the Plant-for-the-planet Foundation given by Felix
Finkbeiner, the 9 year old who initiated the campaign.
The impact is that literally billions of tree’s across the world have been
planted to aid this campaign, raise awareness and lessened the amount
of CO2 emissions – and they have succeeded, not only have they set
targets that have been surpassed by the participlants, but they are
continuing with their campaign without giving up, continuously planting
millions of tree’s a day thanks to donations made by the public, globally –
they haven’t quite reached their initial target of 14 million tree’s per
country but they are indeed very close to it.
10Creative Media Production 2012
Case Study: Plant for the Planet
http://www.plant-for-the-planet-billiontreecampaign.org/
Source