Peta has launched a hard-hitting Christmas campaign, titled ‘Happy Christmassacre,’ designed to expose the animal suffering hidden behind traditional festive meals. Rolling out across cinema, social and outdoor, the work urges people to choose a vegan Christmas and rethink long-standing seasonal habits that rely on animal slaughter.
At the center is a two-minute hero film by Emmy- and Cannes Lions–winning director David Shane. It starts as a cosy Christmas dinner before morphing into a horror-styled reveal of the violence behind the feast. The wider visual world echoes this twist, replacing familiar festive symbols with unsettling imagery such as Santa’s suit reimagined through close-up shots of animal pelts.
Advertisement
The campaign will run in UK cinemas and globally online, with Germany, the UK and the US as key social markets, supported by nationwide OOH and fly-posting across London.
Helen Rhodes, chief creative officer at Grey London, explained: “Nothing says Christmas like carving up the corpse of a once-sentient being in front of your nearest and dearest. This year, we wanted to shine a light on that dark festive tradition, to expose the quiet, normalized savagery that plays out at millions of dinner tables across the country. We hope our message resonates so that this Christmas, more people choose compassion over cruelty – and that nut roast sales go through the roof.”
Read our interview with Helen Rhodes, where she outlines what she hopes to achieve at Grey London.
Grey London