Creative advert has a deeper message

Greenpeace UK has released an alternative Christmas ad that features a comedy “roast” battle between two of the main stars of Christmas lunch – turkey and potato.

Set in a dingy comedy club, Potato, played by comedian Annie McGrath and Turkey, played by fellow comedian and scriptwriter, Jack Barry hurl various burns at each other as the crowd whoops and jeers.

It’s all fun and games until Potato goes one step further and exposes turkey’s “dirty little secret.”

“We all know your dirty little feed habit it destroying the planet!” she proclaims to a stunned Turkey. Potato then goes on to explain the impact Turkey’s feed has on the rainforest.

According to Greenpeace, turkey has been gobbling up feed most likely grown on deforested land in South America.

“In fact, 90% of the soya imported to Europe is used for animal feed and two thirds of the UK’s soya is imported from South America, where it is a leading cause of deforestation,” says the organisation. “Over half the soya we use in the UK is fed to poultry. Using the Roundtable on Responsible Soya’s own calculator, Greenpeace UK estimates that an area of land the size of Glasgow would be needed to grow enough soya to fatten the 10 million turkeys Brits eat every Christmas.”

Chiara Vitali, forest campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: “We can all make a choice to eat less meat. The world’s top scientists say it’s vital to prevent climate breakdown. But supermarkets like Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s, who’ve all pledged to remove deforestation from their supply chains, bear a significant weight of responsibility.”

It is just one of many recent campaigns by Greenpeace that aims to expose on how consumerism directly impacts on the planet.

In 2018, the organisation told the “dirty story of palm oil” in an animated short and it has also targeted global brands including Coca Cola as part of its End Ocean Plastics campaign with Lovers.