Advertising Students Show Chicken-Eaters the Truth

Advertising students Nafe Tong and Dunstan Lee of Singapore’s LASALLE College of the Arts were determined to confront meat-eaters with the hard-hitting fact that even though people who eat meat don’t kill animals, they do hire the killers. And when the opportunity for a class project came along, Tong and Lee did exactly that by creating a series of three ads.

Each ad shows a chicken in a different appliance—a food processor, a deep fryer, and a microwave—along with the words “You wouldn’t do this. It’s cruel, inhumane, and even insane. But when you choose to eat chicken meat, you’re doing the same thing—taking a life. Not killing the chicken doesn’t make you any less guilty.” Even though the photos aren’t real, the horrific cruelty endured by the more than 41 million chickens who are raised and killed for food in Singapore every year is.

Chickens raised for food spend their entire lives confined by the tens of thousands to warehouses or battery cages. As a result of filthy conditions and genetic manipulation, chickens often suffer from ulcerated feet and develop crippling bone disorders, ammonia burns, and blisters. At the slaughterhouse, chickens are shackled by their legs, and their throats are cut while they’re still conscious. Many birds are scalded to death in defeathering tanks.

We think Tong and Lee have created a winning idea to promote compassion for animals, and their message is exactly right: The best way to help stop the abuse of chickens is to stop eating them. Purchasing meat means an animal was killed for you and you paid for it. Want to avoid supporting factory-farm cruelty? Take the Pledge to Be Veg today!

Posted by Jason Baker.