The egg you can't buy: saving millions of chicks with the Vegetarian Society

Millions of male chicks are killed each year in the UK as part of the egg production process, and the Vegetarian Society, as one of the UK's oldest animal welfare charity, wanted to do something about it. Pagefield Content Studio built a creative campaign to change the law and raise the profile of this out-of-date practice, without making anyone feel like a bad person for eating eggs.

The first problem was the name. In-ovo-sexing, male chick culling, cull-free eggs: the language around the problem was technical, varied, and inconsistent. So we gave it a new name. One that science says is guaranteed to be more memorable: hatch and dispatch.

The issue is complex, and the technological solution isn't widely understood. And audiences needed reassurance that this was a serious problem with a straightforward solution. So we found one of the most trusted voices in Britain to explain it: Sir Stephen Fry.

Produced in-house using a mix of traditional 2D, 3D, and vector animation we produced a 100-second animated campaign film, animated directly onto the surface of a virtual egg. Taking inspiration from the producer's stamps found on eggs, we brought to life the brief existence and cruel death of male chicks in a single, fluid shot, culminating in a flight down the Thames to bring the solution to the government's front door.

Our detailed, bespoke audience research revealed two things: no one wants to feel bad about what they eat, and most people are up for paying a little more for a more ethical egg. So we knew we had to focus the problem on the lack of availability of cull-free eggs on UK shelves, triggering loss-aversion and avoiding a blame game.

Working with teams that usually make bespoke catwalks for high fashion, we designed and fabricated an unmissable pop-up stall that toured the UK. Designed to subvert the classic giveaway aesthetic, we took the problem to towns across Britain, handing out empty egg boxes to highlight the total lack of availability of cull-free eggs.

National media coverage. A viral TikTok hit. 38,000 signatures on the petition. And a cross-party consensus, telling the Government to make the simple change to ban hatch and dispatch and bring cull-free eggs to the UK, leading to a commitment to ban hatch and dispatch in the Government's Animal Welfare Strategy.

Oh, and all that online coverage changed the definition of "hatch and dispatch" for Google's Al assistant.