THE MAKING OF LET'S REALLY BAN FOX HUNTING IN SCOTLAND
Behind the scenes
Here at the League Against Cruel Sports, we know that over 80% of Scotland's residents wish to see fox hunting really banned. But we also acknowledge there is a chance the public would not notice the Government consultation on strengthening the existing loophole-riddled law.
In order to combat this, we have decided to push our petition 'to really ban fox hunting' as a tactic to empower the people of Scotland to have their say on the matter. This, combined with the hours of video evidence captured by the League revealing that illegal hunting is still taking place, will be a statement no Government can ignore.
We want to get home the fact that - despite public opinion against hunting and a belief that it was successfully banned almost twenty years ago - it is still going on and it still needs to be stopped. We think the video successfully carries that message in a succinct and eye-catching style and we’ll know just how successful it has been when we see the number of people who have signed the petition to 'really ban fox hunting'."
Robbie Marsland, Director of Scotland at League Against Cruel Sports
The concept
To ensure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to engage with the petition, and if they have the time, to respond to the consultation, we worked with the advertising agency The Union to create a concept that would catch the hearts and minds of the Scottish public.
Bringing the notion that fox hunting is still happening here in Scotland, the campaign focuses on one lone fox hunter in full regalia who calmly rides through the city of Edinburgh to the Holyrood Parliament building. When he gets there, he smiles into the camera and turns to reveal an embroidered message on the back of his red coat that says, 'I’m still allowed to hunt foxes'.
Our mission was to raise awareness that fox hunting is still an issue in modern Scotland - making it relevant to people and their lives. We needed to grab people’s attention and shock them into support. We needed to bring fox hunting into people's lives so that the discomfort became something they couldn’t ignore."
Aisling Cotter, Union
Applying a digital approach
Working with the digital agency Fifty, focus was placed on applying a digital approach as a tactic to reach 1.2 million Scottish residents in the most effective way.
In support of the film, we produced over eight adverts; making sure that our message was communicated in various ways across social media to increase engagement. All adverts included one simple call to action – sign the petition to really ban fox hunting in Scotland.
Directing people to the petition page, we aimed to make the process of saving Scotland’s foxes as effortless as possible through clear messaging and form layout. We hope we have achieved this in our pursuit of gaining 50,000 signatures.
Our key objective for this social campaign was to drive targeted Scottish residents to the petition page of the League Against Cruel Sport's website to encourage signatures of the petition."
Olivia Liman, Fifty
On the day response
With vast planning, film day went according to plan which provided us with opportunities to engage with the public. Horrified at the fact that fox hunting is still happening here in Scotland, many were unaware of the loopholes in the law that permitted this illegal activity.
It was a huge opportunity, not only in regards to producing a film that triggered immediate reactions on social media. Some of the reactions have been caught on camera and are seen more evidently in the long version of the campaign film.
See the campaign video in full
