NZ Prime Minister announces no more testing of legal highs on animals – a result of Paw Justice’s ‘Animal Strike’ campaign via DDB New Zealand

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Animal Strike Poster.jpgMeows and woofs of delight went up as New Zealand’s cats and dogs celebrated Prime Minister John Key’s announcement there will be no further testing of legal highs on animals in this country – thanks in large part, to the Animal Strike campaign by Paw Justice and DDB.

 

In September 2013 Paw Justice teamed up with DDB and held a nationwide Animal Strike to oppose a law that allowed legal-highs to be tested on animals. The concept was born from the knowledge that people enjoy being entertained by animals online and was designed to get attention by taking these moments away.

A collaboration with Google and YouTube assisted in the blocking of animal content in New Zealand for one day. The strike was then rolled out onto street posters, print ads, TV commercials, billboards in dog parks and animals striking at Auckland Zoo. The public could head to a website where they could sign the petition and download a strike toolkit with files to upload to their social media profiles, YouTube channels and websites to block their own animal content. The mission was simple, spread the word of the strike and block as much animal content as possible in the hope of gathering petition signatures.

The strike generated international awareness for the cause with an estimated reach of over 22 million people worldwide. At the strikes end a petition was presented to the government containing over 58,000 signatures.

 

Since then, several politicians from Labour, the Greens and Act took up the cause and have been campaigning for a law change in Parliament. On Monday 5 May, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, announced on TV One News, “There will be no animal testing, either locally or internationally to support the application for a physco active substance”.

 

The news comes weeks after the campaign was awarded a silver Warc prize for social strategy and a joint award in the low budget category.

 

It’s game, set and match to our much loved four-legged fluffies and their loud and proud fur families.