The ‘Make it Possible’ Multimedia Campaign: Generating a New ‘Everyday’ in Animal Welfare

Abstract

Although livestock welfare issues were once barely visible to mainstream consumers, animal welfare activists now combine traditional public media advocacy with digital media advocacy to spread their campaign message and mobilise consumers. This article examines one attempt to mainstream animal welfare issues: Animals Australia's ‘Make It Possible’ multimedia campaign. Specifically, we contend that the campaign puts into circulation an ‘affective economy’ (Ahmed, 2004a, 2004b) aimed at proposing and entrenching new modes of everyday behaviour. Core affective positions and their circulation in this economy are considered from three interrelated articulations of this campaign: the release of and public response to the YouTube campaign video; Coles' short-lived offering of campaign shopping bags; and public engagement in the ‘My Make It Possible Story’ website. Analysis also opens up broader questions concerning the relationship between online activism and everyday life, asking how articulations in one domain translate to everyday practices.

“I Feel Sorry for Them”: Australian Meat Consumers’ Perceptions about Sheep and Beef Cattle Transportation

“…Australians’ increasing concerns about farm animal welfare can also be seen in the response to recent activists’ campaigns about caged hens [ 70 ] and the live export issue [ 17 , 28 ]. In activist campaign videos, animals are often represented as individuals (frequently with names and personalities) who are suffering.…”

The Caged Chicken or the Free-Range Egg? The Regulatory and Market Dynamics of Layer-Hen Welfare in the UK, Australia and the USA

“…Coles and Woolworths have also sought to publicly align themselves with trusted animal advocacy organizations, and to thereby appropriate the 'ethical halo' that surrounds these organizations in the eyes of the public (Parker and Scrinis 2014). In 2013, for example, Coles began selling 'winged pigs' shopping bags to support Animals Australia's 'Make it Possible' campaign against factory farming, although they ceased doing so after strong opposition from the National Farmers Federation and livestock producers (Rodan and Mummery 2014;Chen 2016).…”

Mediation for affect: coming to care about factory-farmed animals

“…Importantly, however, it is also recognised in this space that such shock tactics will be most effective when viewers are also pointed to an action that they can take to help the situation (Aaltola, 2014). Given, then, the capacity for the affective work of moral shocks – when strategically used and linked to achievable actions – to align individual respondents into collectivities, social movement campaigns must all strive to be ‘affectively charged’ so as to gain recognition and build momentum and action around issues (Kuntsman, 2012: 7; see also Rodan and Mummery, 2014b).…”

“…Collected materials were then analysed for affective and motivational content: moral and emotive framing of content (the use of strategies designed to garner affective response: anthropomorphism, moral interpellation, the generation of moral shock, affirmation through community, the development of an affective economy); expressions of individual and collective feeling (sadness, horror, anger, guilt); and expressions of commitment to change. We also draw on the findings of some of our previous analyses of this campaign (see Rodan & Mummery, 2016;2014a;2014b). …”

“…Given the capacity, then, for the affective work of moral shocks -when strategically used and linked to achievable actions -to align individual respondents into collectivities, social movement campaigns must all strive to be "affectively charged" so as to gain recognition and build momentum and action around issues (Kuntsman, 2012, p. 7; also see Rodan & Mummery, 2014b).…”