Creative strategy and production company BigStar recently partnered with Kenner Films to create a provocative and informative short film about antibiotics in today’s meat products and their effect on consumers. The video is part of the newly launched Meat Without Drugs campaign, a project between FixFood and Consumers Union to address the rampant misuse of antibiotics by factory farms.
The film, narrated by Bill Paxton, relates the history of antibiotics’ introduction to the world in 1944 as a “miracle cure” for various diseases, including Tuberculosis, Salmonella and Pneumonia. Using animation, the video shows how 80 percent of today’s antibiotics are used on factory farm animals, enabling them to grow faster and survive in unhealthy conditions. This system, in turn, creates antibiotic-resistant “superbugs,” which contaminate the world’s soil, water and food. The film concludes with a call to action for consumers to change the system and petition retailers.
“BigStar has a way of taking complex ideas and magically making them entertaining and compelling,” said director Robert Kenner. “They know how to take concepts and turn them into something more than the sum of their parts.”
BigStar has a long relationship with Kenner, previously collaborating together on a series of projects, including the widely received 2008 documentary Food, Inc. When Kenner became involved in FixFood, a social media action project to engage Americans in reforming the food system, he consulted BigStar on the brand look and feel of the campaign.
“Once Robert decided to make a video about the overuse of antibiotics, we worked with him on developing a script, executing and designing an overall approach,” said BigStar president Josh Norton. “It’s such a huge story – to take the history, utility and current problems of antibiotics and frame it in a way that’s relevant and actionable. We’re proud to present this socially relevant and significant spot as a part of the FixFood team.”
