Innocean attracts millennials with creative cruelty-free campaign

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

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Sat, September 23, 2023 | 22:24

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Innocean attracts millennials with creative cruelty-free campaign

Posted : 2020-01-12 19:34

Updated : 2020-01-12 19:34

Innocean Worldwide releases a video clip for "Super Animal Fur" campaign on YouTube, Tuesday/ Courtesy of Innocean Worldwide

By Jung Hae-myoung

Social consciousness is becoming one of the key elements employed by the fashion industry when targeting millennials. One of the hottest trends is vegan culture which rejects clothing made using any animal products.

Hyundai Motor Group's advertising subsidiary Innocean Worldwide has launched a new campaign for the protection of animals with its "Super Animal Fur" video clip on YouTube, Tuesday.

In this three-minute video, Yves from K-pop girl group LOONA yyxy plays the role of a hunter trying to get the fur of imaginary animals.

Unlike other vegan campaign videos, the "Super Animal Fur" campaign tries to emphasize the charm of fake fur, rather than directly criticizing the use of real animal fur products.

"Until now, the approach to advertizing cruelty-free clothing largely relied on showing pictures of animal cruelty. But for this campaign, we tried to use more fun and cheeky ideas combined with social awareness in order create a lighter approach for millennials," Kim Ki-young, the head of production at Innocean Worldwide said.

"The producers put their heads together in order to devise an imaginary super animal that can be caught without using violent means."

"Vegan culture is a worldwide phenomenon and more people have a negative view of removing the fur from real animals. We started this campaign in order to make a product that abnegates using real animals, but with a better quality texture," Kim Jong-han, an official from Innocean Worldwide, said.
This is also the message that the clip is trying to deliver.

"We especially took insight from millennials' trends that are spread through YouTube and SNS. Young people in particular have a quicker reaction to and interest in different cultures, hence we thought the trending vegan culture was appropriate to use for promotion," he said.

Indeed some of the comments below the video on YouTube said "I love the fashion and the fact that it's cruelty-free."
With the collaboration of illustrator Jangkoal the production team introduced several mystical animals such as the "clouded cat," "flower bird," and "burping dragon." The hunter shoots a "bee-gun" instead of bullets which then the clouded cat turns into clothing from vegan fashion brand "Vegan Tiger."

Another colloabration was with "Vegan Tiger," a fashion brand led by CEO Yang Yoon-ah. Yang started the business after she got a cat. After watching footage of animals dying from epidemic stomatitis, she wanted to raise her voice on animal rights, which she then put into action by launching a vegan fashion company.

"It is important to target people who have been avoiding animal clothing from the beginning, but I also wanted to make a brand chosen as a substitute by people who used to wear animal clothing," Yang said. "I think it is more fashionable to buy clothing that is cruelty-free. I believe the time will come when people are stunned by the fact that they used to make clothes using animal products," she added.

"It is true that consumers are more interested in this subject as pet owners are increasing in Korea, the producers are also pet owners who look at the world the same way as consumers," an official in the advertising industry said. "The more they love their pets, the wider their views get on accepting animals as part of their family," he added.

Innocean has been continuing socially conscious projects since 2018, when it released a similar video on erasing the preconception of black dogs. This "black dog" campaign was created with the support and collaboration with several companies including The Cream Company, a digital creative company, and Interpark Pet, an online market under Interpark that focuses on pet products.

This campaign also took in various forms other than videos. Last October, Innocean ran a pop-up store with Vegan Tiger called "Secret Fantasy Closet" at Hyundai Department store in Sinchon, the heart of "youth" culture.

The project was also showcased with "yarn bombing," which is a decorating activity in public places with knitted products. With this cruelty-free event, the trees at Garosu-gil in Sinsa-dong were covered with knitted design clothing.

"With the video clip as a start, we are looking at various activities to participate," Kim said. The company also hopes to expand the campaign this year by featuring in various fashion shows in and outside of the country.

hmjung@koreatimes.co.kr