Cruelty Free International

Delivering a creative campaign to drive awareness and encourage change all the way to 10 Downing Street.

Very little has changed in the last century on animal testing, so we stepped back in time to recreate an iconic protest image from 1919 linked to the suffragettes, highlighting the urgent need for immediate action.

To deliver a memorable campaign and encourage action against animal testing, we developed a creative idea that would generate maximum impact by leveraging our relationships with passionate animal advocates including Evanna Lynch, Lucy Watson, and Lesley Nicol.

Our integrated campaign strategy was focused on generating widespread public awareness and support for our cause, while also putting pressure on government to deliver meaningful change.

To deliver maximum impact it was important that we activated the campaign strategically. We triggered different elements of our campaign at key moments to first educate mainstream audiences about the case and then secondly, encourage action.

Each year, the Home Office publishes new data on the amount of animal testing that takes place in the UK. We wanted to put the topic of animal testing higher on the political and public agenda, but knew we would face a crowded space, and a media landscape who rarely engage with the topic.

In the weeks leading up to the Home Office statistics being released, we began placing a series of exclusive stories about the Home Secretary reintroducing testing for cosmetics for the first time in 23 years in The Times. We compounded this with another exclusive, highlighting widespread opposition from leading industry figures including the Co-Op, Body Shop, and others.

To create further awareness and engagement, we distributed polling research to amplify widespread public discontent regarding animal testing and targeted the Labour Party Conference with street art. We secured prominent online and print coverage for these stories, including the front page of The Times.

It was at this point that our #TargetZero campaign peaked, timed to release alongside the Home Office figures, where we called on the UK public to fight for change.

This image of our animal advocates was amplified across social media, with each celebrity and many others informing their followers about the damning Home Office statistics and calling on them to sign the petition.

Alongside this social media campaign, we collaborated with likeminded animal welfare organisations, OneKind and Animal Free Research UK, to craft a hard-hitting press release encouraging readers to sign our petition calling for a phase-out of experiments.

Published exclusively in the Daily Mail, the release and final element of the campaign, resulted in the 100,000 signatures CFI needed for the campaign petition (and debate) to travel all the way to Parliament – and be handed to 10 Downing Street.