Vegetarierbund Deutschland/ VEBU: THE CANNIBAL RESTAURANT

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Use of Social Media Marketing

Advertiser: VEGETARIERBUND DEUTSCHLAND

Product/Service: VEGETARIAN FOUNDATION

Agency: SERVICEPLAN

Date of First Appearance: Aug 28 2010

Entrant Company: SERVICEPLAN, Munich, GERMANY

Entry URL: http://www.award-serviceplancampaign.com/cannibal-restaurant/

Chief Creative Officer: Alex Schill

Creative Director: Christoph Everke

Copywriter: Janne Sachse/Daniel Gassner

Art Director: Basma Attalla

Account Supervisor: Michaela Krietsch/Andrea Killinger/Valerie Simon

Graphic Design: Matthäus Frost/Sascha Franz

Programmer: Cosimo Chirico

Production Company: Parasol Island

Producer: Sara Dadras/Moritz von Schröter

Media placement: Website, eBay, job ads, newspapers, radio, youtube, TV, twitter, forums, blogs, - Website, eBay, job ads, newspapers, radio, youtube, TV, twitter, forums, blogs, - 28.08.2010



Insights, Strategy & the Idea

Every three seconds a human dies of starvation – while vast amounts of crops and water are wasted on mass livestock. For the Vegetarian Foundation Germany this means: every bite of meat consists of human lives. We were asked to ignite a discussion about the shocking consequences as widely spread as possible. Due to the budget of 5,000 € the aim was to make the communication as involving as possible. So we took the consequences of our high meat consumption literally and announced the opening of a cannibal restaurant.



Creative Execution

We placed an interview on YouTube in which the chef announces the opening of the Flimé restaurant in Berlin. A homepage informed about its cuisine, which is inspired by a Brazilian cannibal tribe. With ads in local newspapers, magazines and online we were looking for employees and voluntary flesh donors. We also spread the rumour by calling into radio shows, writing letters to newspapers and emails to politicians. This all caused a huge discussion and made our idea into a self-seller in the press and social media: Users formed contra groups on Facebook. At peak 7 messages per minute were twittered about the cannibal restaurant. On eBay a Flimé pâté had a bid of almost 900 €. The interest was so high we announced a press conference to give our message to journalists, photographers and TV teams. And then the discourse really started – countless users worldwide discussed meat consumption.



Results and Effectiveness

The overwhelming attention for the cannibal restaurant made meat consumption into an international issue: more than 700 news articles in over 60 countries, countless threads in blogs, forums and social media (e.g. 7 tweets per minute, contra groups on Facebook and even controversial video commentaries on YouTube). In total: we turned a budget of 5,000 € into a media value of 5,000,000 € and gained 50,000,000 sight contacts. The click rate on vebu.de went up fivefold. And most importantly: millions of people worldwide discussed about the Vegetarian Foundation’s message intensely: meat eats people.