Environmental PSA Gives Meat the Day off Just in Time for Thanksgiving

Personal health is on everyone’s mind. So is the health of the planet. Giving up meat for just one day a week can cleanse your body, and lessen the burden that meat production places on the environment. It’s been well-documented that meat production is one of the leading drivers of climate change, and places untold pressure on our water, air, land, fuel and grain resources, which is why meatsdayoff.org has released a new campaign just in time for Thanksgiving.

If everyone takes one day off from meat a week, the world could save enough gas to fill every car in Canada and Mexico – as well as save millions of acres of land – an area twice the size of Delaware. What’s the best weapon? Not preaching or being polarising, the campaign takes a flanking manoeuver and attacks the problem with humour. And thus, 'Give Meat the Day Off' was born.

In the :30 TVC PSA, we see an overworked pig named Francis Bacon slaving away while is workmate, Federica Chicken, commiserates over the cubicle wall. Two posters for use as print and online creative show the colleagues enjoying a well-deserved day off.

“If Trump can pardon a turkey (an actual turkey, not for instance Roger Stone) we felt that we all could give animals a day off. Jokes aside, people are always asking what we eat for Thanksgiving. And that got us thinking – what a great time for our new campaign." said the team at meatsdayoff.org.

The current production environment has caused agencies and production houses to be creative in ways they’d never dreamed – raising barrier and extending timelines. The director call for the project took place in early 2020. With the onset of pandemic, global production of course, was shut down. But that didn’t stop Kiran Koshy and the team of Slash Dynamic. A director, DP, editor, photographer, composers, animators, set designers and a puppet maker all worked together virtually and utilising social distance protocols. Talent from upstate New York to Dallas, Texas to Long Beach, CA all rallied and came together. John Turcios, agency creative by day and set-builder by night, hand built the entire set by hand, to scale, in his garage.