To coincide with the Maine Lobster Festival, where an estimated 16,000 lobsters are steamed alive, PETA staged a provocative street demonstration just outside the festival's main entrance, reaching over 76 million impressions on social channels. A woman, fully body-painted as a lobster, lay across a giant serving dish alongside a lemon wedge and butter, holding a sign that read: "Try to Relate to Who's on Your Plate."
The visual was designed to force a moment of identification between the viewer and the animal on the plate. By placing a human who is vulnerable, exposed, and styled as "food" directly in the path of festivalgoers, the demonstration reframed the festival as an act of violence, urging attendees to turn around and choose kindness instead with a vegan meal.
The concept was built on three core principles:
The demonstration was captured and distributed across PETA's social channels, paired with a supplementary PETA investigation video into the industry, plus additional posts about lobsters to capitalize on the surge of attention while eyes were on the story. The simplicity and visual clarity of the demonstration made it inherently shareable, and its provocative nature sparked widespread conversation in the comments and beyond.
