I know it seems unlikely, but I can't help but wonder if this glorious piece of stupidity is a conspiracy of the Australian meat industry.
Why would the meat industry create a video (for airing in cinemas and on television) for Animals Australia a pro-animal organization that's campaigning against factory farming and the cruelty it inflicts on animals?
Well, take a look. I think you'll see what I mean.
(This is a long video, more than 11 minutes, but the Stupid Ad part is at the beginning.)
(Or watch it here on Vimeo.)
Take note of the song they're singing: "There's a Place for Us" from West Side Story. Sung by the main characters when their messed-up world is about to get very much worse, and they find out there is not a place for them.
Oops. Things are not looking good for the pigs and chickens.
Okay, I can almost overlook that, since not everyone will think about the story, but take the song at face value.
But then the ad hits us with a blinding flash of utter stupidity: The a pig sprouts wings and flies away from the factory.
So the message? How could it be anything but: There will be no more factory farming ... when pigs have wings!
That is, never. That interpretation is pretty much unavoidable.
I wondered if I was missing something, so I asked alert reader Sean Triner in Australia if the "... when pigs have wings" idiom has the same currency and meaning Down Under as it does in the US.
Alas, it does. This is a video that clearly states that factory farming is permanent and inevitable. Who'd waste their time campaigning against it?
I can see only two explanations for this video:
- The Australian meat industry secretly did this to undermine public opposition to factory farming by persuading everyone that it will never end.
- The agency creatives who produced this stupid ad were so in love with their goofy concept and high-end production that they didn't notice they directly contradicted the message they meant to make, and did so more clearly and loudly than the message itself.
Sadly, I'm afraid it's #2.
I prefer the other explanation. It's more interesting.
More Stupid Nonprofit Ads.
Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 30 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you'll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com. 
