The Humane Society seems to be taking a page from Ashton Kutcher’s book.
In a Punk’d-like campaign against Costco’s egg sourcing practices, the animal welfare group showed unsuspecting humans a tiny, squalid apartment for rent in New York that was supposed to make them understand what it’s like to be a Costco chicken. It’s called #CagedForCostco, and Fast Company reports:
Costco’s eggs are laid by chickens who live in spaces smaller than the surface of an iPad, crammed together so tightly they can’t even spread their wings. To help people viscerally understand what that might be like, they hired actors, told them that they were going to look at an apartment in New York, and took them to the space to capture their reactions as they entered a room so tiny and squalid that the toilet, shower, and bed were all in the same place. (The toilet “doubles as a nightstand,” the smiling realtor explains, while the murphy bed lifts up to allow a person to shower.)
Dreamy, right?!
After the renters’ initial freak out, the fake realtor triumphantly declares that he is not actually a realtor at all, and whips out an iPad to show them a video about the fucked up conditions for Costco’s egg laying chickens. You’ve been Punk’d!
But not really, since the renters, according to FastCo, were actually actors. And not very good ones at that — they seem less shocked at the horrid conditions for Costco chickens as they were the horrid conditions of that apartment. Regardless, life for Costco chickens is worse than it is for New York City apartment hunters … but at least they don’t have to pay rent.
