The Egg You Can’t Buy

Client: The Vegetarian Society

The Egg You Can’t Buy is an animated film created for The Vegetarian Society, designed to expose the routine killing of millions of male chicks by the UK egg industry. It is the centrepiece of the Ban Hatch and Dispatch campaign, bringing the practice into public and political consciousness.

Jargon meant that the issue was poorly understood, so the film simplifies the issue to a clear, emotional narrative. Narrated by Stephen Fry, it shows a supermarket egg stamp in motion, following a chick’s brief life in one continuous shot. The story ends with a journey down the Thames, bringing the solution directly to Government. On a small budget, the film was created with a three-person team, fusing traditional animation style with digital tools. Shadow puppetry informed the motion design, creating a core animation with 3D, 2D, and frame-by-frame techniques. The animation was then digitally ‘wrapped’ around thousands of procedurally generated eggs using advanced compositing to produce a macrophotography effect. Rather than blaming consumers, the film showed a failure of regulation, allowing audiences to support change without guilt. The script coined the term “hatch and dispatch”, replacing jargon with a phrase grounded in behavioural science. The Vegetarian Society saw a 53% increase in brand popularity within six months. The campaign achieved a change in Government policy, 45m earned reach, over 120,000 TikTok views, and 38,000 petition signatures. It also changed Google’s AI definition of “hatch and dispatch”. Ultimately, the film demonstrates how creative storytelling can drive culture, policy and meaningful change.