The Campaign

The Truth Restaurant was an interactive mobile experience that upon first glance seemed to be promoting a restaurant. Its true purpose was to reveal the atrocious truth behind the tradition of eating dog meat. When it comes to tradition, many follow blindly. Quite often, traditions are practiced without logic or question. The Yulin Dog Meat Festival is an example of one of these traditions. SPCA wants to put a stop to this inhumane custom because there is no evidence that dog meat is beneficial to health. Apart from being mostly unregulated and unhygienic, the animals are often kidnapped and tortured. We knew that if we were going to reach the hearts of our participants, we had to speak to them where they were. In China that means their mobile phones.

Execution

Launched right before the biggest dog meat festival, our audience received the invitation to The Truth Restaurant on their mobile via a QR code. Throughout the course of the experience, we served up a shocking dose of reality, showing our audience the traditions and truths of eating dog meat. Viewers used their mobiles to reveal the hidden truths. Navigation gestures inspired by caged animals, such as clawing and scratching, allowed viewers to be immersed in the reality faced by dogs in their final moments. We used the ugly truths to provoke viewers to make donations, to pledge their support and share with friends and family. Each donation was turned into a powerful education tool, in the form of a textbook that was distributed to Chinese children. It is aimed to educate future generations about respect for dogs and take animal cruelty off the menu permanently.

The Truth Restaurant was designed to help SPCA educate everyday people (in three languages) and to allow them to share the issue with B2B partners. First campaign by SPCA This mobile experience was the first campaign by SPCA, and it was also the first time they were able to reach as well as engage with their audience through their personal mobile device. A permanent piece of communication SPCA is now using The Truth Restaurant as a long-term tool to educate future generations about animal cruelty. At present, 20,000 more students have learned about the truth of animal cruelty. Starting point of B2B conversations It serves as a B2B communication to garner a much-needed support for SPCA year-round.

The Situation

Good PR is an effective way to disperse information. Couple that with a well-designed educational tool and it’s a powerful way to reach the right people with the truth. The Truth Restaurant had a message that deserved not only the attention of the public, but also the public’s immediate action to stop unregulated food practices in Southern China that put animals and humans at risk. Which is why more people need to know about the message. More people need to step up to make a change. Which is why PR is crucial and will make a difference.

The Strategy

We had two primary audiences for this campaign. Animal welfare advocates They opposed to eating dog meat on moral grounds. They don’t need a reason; all they need is ammunition for their cause. The mobile-first and socially-enabled web experienced is just such a tool. People indifferent to eating dog meat They represent a bigger challenge. When told to stop eating dog meat, they cite tradition as a reason to continue. Or they ask how dog meat is different from pork or beef. By positioning The Truth Restaurant as a high-end culinary experience, when we revealed the truth behind the myths, the reactions would be all the more potent. The Truth Restaurant did not rely on moral supremacy to deliver its message; it used an unforgettable contrast to get people to question the food they’ve eaten, the food they’ve also presented to friends and family thinking it was healthy.