Think Pig

London, United Kingdom – Sept. 27, 2010 – The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) has launched a social game on Facebook to promote the core messages of their THINK PIG campaign in an entertaining and engaging way. The THINK PIG campaign uses a fun Facebook word game to raise awareness of the standards in which pigs are reared. As well as being entertained, players will learn what labels to look out for to buy higher welfare products in the supermarket. The RSPCA is reaching a new audience through this casual gaming approach.

The game, a word quiz that challenges Facebook users to rack up scores against their Facebook friends, includes competitive and engaging features to spread the RSPCA campaign’s message.

Players arrange a herd of ‘word pigs’ to make three to seven letter words, scoring accordingly. To increase interactions further, the game allows players to send a personal pig to Facebook friends once a day. This pig pops up in the ‘word pig’ herd and players can then use the letters in the person’s name to aim for high scores of secret word achievements.

Users gain extra points for answering bonus questions in between each round that bring out the key campaign messages. They can also share the answer on Facebook if they have found the campaign message particularly interesting/powerful.

Scores are given for amassing the longest words, completing all words in a ‘word pig’ herd, the number of herds completed in a session and the most words guessed (by size). These variations allow players to compete in many different ways, adding to the number of interactions between players in this social game. Between herds, players are given the opportunity to double their score with a bonus round asking them pertinent questions relating to pig welfare.

THINK PIG players can also unlock secret achievements and hidden words. Players can share both their scores and achievements with Facebook friends, as well as seeing which friends are beating their scores. The high score ‘Leaderboars’ are ranked in several different ways, including highest scores by word length, numbers of ‘word pig’ herds played and how players ranked in trivia questions related to the RSPCA’s THINK PIG campaign. Facebook gamers can also compare global high scores.

Facebook gamers can visit http://apps.facebook.com/rspcathinkpig to play the game and http://www.facebook.com/rspcathinkpig to ‘like’ the campaign page.

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About RSPCA’s THINK PIG Campaign

The RSPCA’s THINK PIG campaign aims to encourage the UK’s shoppers to use their consumer power to help improve pig welfare.

Many of the 160 million pigs bred for meat across Europe live in conditions that the Society believes are unacceptable. Pigs face a range of welfare issues that most people are just not aware of.

Consumers have the power to make a difference for pigs and that’s why the RSPCA is urging consumers to ‘Think Pig’ when out shopping and make sure what they put in their shopping basket is a vote for better pig welfare.

The campaign needs to reach a broad consumer audience and the Facebook game, with its social elements, is one of the ways that the Society hopes to achieve this.

RSPCA Key Information

RSPCA and Farm Animals

The RSPCA is working harder than ever before to try to improve the welfare of as many farm animals as possible, at every stage of their lives.

More than 900 million farm animals are reared every year in the UK. Unfortunately the law alone is not always strong or detailed enough to ensure that they all have a good quality of life, and are transported and slaughtered humanely.

It is a huge challenge to try to improve the welfare of such a large number of animals, ranging from those kept as pets to those kept on large-scale farms. The RSPCA works in a number of different ways to encourage improvements, and always uses all available scientific information and practical evidence to support their arguments.

General RSPCA key information

Every 25 seconds someone in England and Wales dials 0300 1234 999 - the RSPCA's 24-hour cruelty line - for help. The RSPCA received more than one million phone calls during 2008.

In 2007, the Animal Welfare Act passed into law. For the first time, this law places a clear legal obligation on people to care properly for their animals. And the Act can also help RSPCA inspectors to prevent animal suffering by taking action earlier in cases of ongoing neglect.

For further information about the RSPCA and the work it is currently doing, please visit their site: http://www.rspca.org.uk/home