The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) has announced that its ‘RSPCA Assured’ campaign, which calls on the public to support higher welfare poultry farmers ahead of Pancake Day (Tuesday, February 21), will officially launch this Saturday (February 11).
The animal welfare charity said the campaign is part of a major bid to back RSPCA Assured egg producers during avian influenza (bird flu) restrictions and to highlight that RSPCA Assured eggs are higher welfare.
The television advertisement will air from this Saturday until Pancake Day on Channel 4 during shows like ‘Food Unwrapped’, ‘Grand Designs’ and ‘The Great Pottery Throwdown’.
Senior marketing manager at RSPCA Assured, Xenia Kingsley, said the charity hopes the ad will encourage consumers who choose to mark Pancake Day by making pancakes, to make sure they are buying higher welfare eggs.
“We wanted to highlight the importance of hen welfare and invest in our RSPCA Assured egg members by backing them during this difficult time as they face the challenges of one of the worst outbreaks of bird flu the UK has ever seen,” she said.
The ad will also feature on More 4 and E4 during programmes including ‘Gogglebox’, ‘Escape to the Chateau’ and ‘Kirsty and Paul’s Love It or List It’.
Sky will feature the ad on its channels too, which will see it air between shows like ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘Succession’, as well as ‘The Great British Bake Off’, ‘Rick Stein’s Taste of the Sea’ and ‘Mary Berry’s Quick Cooking’ on the Food Network.
The aim of RSPCA Assured’s campaign, it said, is to offer reassurance to the public that whether free-range or barn, RSPCA Assured eggs are still higher welfare.
This means the hens are given plenty of enrichment to exhibit their natural behaviours and keep them entertained indoors such as perches, items to peck at and areas to dustbathe, and they are also 100% cage-free, the charity said.
