There is sure to be foie gras on some Christmas menus. It’s traditional. Antwerp creative agency, Mutant, and animal rights organisation, Wakker Dier, are also making foie gras top of mind in the lead up to Christmas. Their aim is to stop people from eating it. By and large, it is produced inhumanely. Telling people not to do something is never particularly effective so the partners have created a retro board game instead.
The game highlights the fact that ducks are usually force-fed by pushing tubes down their throats and kept in cruel conditions to unnaturally enlarge their liver to 10 times its usual volume. As a result of this cruelty, the production of foie gras was banned in many European countries, yet there is still a large consumption, and importation of the product is not banned.
Mutant’s board game mimics traditional board game, Game of the Goose, a game played in Europe and the US since 15th Century when Francesco de Medici of Italy gave the game to King Philip of Spain as a gift. At first sight, the game looks like the traditional version by using its retro style with bright, cheerful colours and illustrations that are purposely in the sweet, nostalgic style associated with the traditional board game. However, on closer inspection it becomes apparent that the game replaces the traditional images and rules of the game with haunting illustrations of some of the horrifying procedures used and carried out on the animals in the production of foie gras, and the rules reflecting the same. In the original Game of Goose, a player might end up in “jail” or “the pond”. In this version, the geese get brutally force-fed, a perforated oesophagus or bird flu breaks out – a true representation of the realities of being a goose in the production of Foie Gras, all for human consumption.
For example, if the dice lands on number 10, the command is: Six times a day a steel tube is used to pump fatty corn porridge into your oesophagus. Skip 1 turn. Or number 31: 31. 44. Perforated oesophagus: The steel tube that was pushed down has punctured your oesophagus. Return to 19.
Launching as an influencer campaign, the small-batch consignment of board games will be sent to Dutch animal rights influencers. A campaign film is also running on Wakker Dier’s social channels.
Anne Hilhorst, director, Wakker Dier, commented, “The production of foie gras is banned in the Netherlands, yet it is still on the menu in 43% of restaurants. These restaurants will be sent our board game to confront them with the gruesome way foie gras is produced.”
Odin Saillé, founder and chief creative officer, of Mutant added, “We crafted the illustrations in the game so that at first glance it looks like the cute family game we all know. But when you see the details and start playing the game, you discover the harsh reality of what geese have to endure in the production process. We pushed this contrast between the visual retro style of these board games and the brutal reality throughout the campaign.”
Game rules:
5. You’re a female chick: Too bad, you’re worthless for foie gras. You’ll be ground up alive into cat food or manure. Return to start.
10. 20. 30. 40. 50. 60. Force-feeding: Six times a day a steel tube is used to pump fatty corn porridge into your esophagus. Skip 1 turn.
14. Broken wing: You break your wing while trying to escape from your tiny cage. Skip three turns.
22. Bird flu: This contagious disease breaks out on the goose liver farm. You and all other geese are gassed; each player goes back to start.
31. 44. Perforated esophagus: The steel tube that was pushed down has punctured your esophagus. Return to 19.
27. 38. ‘Animal-friendly’ force feeding: You are now being force-fed with a rubber tube instead of a steel tube. Hooray. Throw again.
52. Saggy legs: Your liver swells and is diseased. The fat liver pushes your legs into such a position that you have difficulty walking. Go back the number of eyes thrown.
59. Your liver isn’t fatty enough: Only when your liver is 6 to 10 times larger than normal, the farmer is satisfied. There is still work to be done! Go back to 13.
Credits
Brand: Wakker Dier
Client Team: Fien Lindelauff, Jannemieke Oostra, Anne Hilhorst & Bas Velthuis
Agency: Mutant
Creative & Strategic Director: Odin Saillé
Creative Director: Ruben Van Maldeghem
Creatives: Charlotte Verweij & Mona Demyttenaere
Business Director: Maarten De Cuyper
Account Director: Innie Tran
Account Manager: Julie De Preter
Account Executive: Thomas Koltsidas
Design Director: Frank Schouwaerts
Designers: Ben Boliau & Tjen Colman
Motion Designer: Bob Van den Audenaerde
Illustrator: Jasper Schreurs
Production Company: Diplomat
Director: Erik Van Overloop
Post-Production: Uncanny
