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PETA Launches Death Bet

By: Dwayne W. Waite Jr.

No one can put a damper on horse racing quite like PETA. When you think of the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes, or the Preakness, you think of the Triple Crown, fancy hats, parties on the green, and Kegasus. People see images of mint juleps being passed around, fancy white event tents with mouth-watering food spreads, and we are told stories of old horse greats, like Secretariat.

But the hard-to-swallow truth about how poorly treated some horses are rarely make the front page. PETA is trying to fix that.

Or are they? No, this clip was done by three students from the Berghs School of Communications in Sweden, and the mock campaign they pitched to PETA dealt with this topic.

Below is a clip.

Pretty wild, right? Solid content, a powerful message, and an outrageous concept. To say that it would stir a controversy is putting the situation delicately.

The One Show Young Ones Competition in May 2012 awarded these students a Golden Pencil, along with four other campaigns.

We were drawn to this not only by its creativity; they nailed the attitude and shock value that PETA ads are beginning to be associated with. It's certainly an interesting concept, and though it's more controversial than the soft porn PETA has been engaging in (all hype, and it fizzled....though the skin ads were real), if PETA approached the students to do "Death Bet," it will without a doubt start a national discussion about the proper treatment of race horses.

Advertising gives an opportunity for people to showcase messages and creativity that would be considered controversial, politically incorrect, and so on. The creative outlets AdLand has, like the One Show, shows that there is young creative talent out there. And though "Death Bet" will probably never go live, we should be certain that we will see some killer content from these Swedish cats down the road.

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About the Author

Dwayne W. Waite Jr. is partner and principal at JDW: The Charlotte Agency, a marketing and advertising shop in Charlotte, NC. He enjoys consumer behavior, economics, and football.

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