Our high meat consumption is lethal to mankind and the environment. For the Vegetarian Foundation Germany this means: every bite of meat consists of human lives. We were asked to ignite a discussion – so we took the consequences literally and announced the opening of a cannibal restaurant. First we placed an interview on YouTube, in which the chef announces the opening in Berlin. A homepage informed about the restaurant and its cuisine, which is inspired by a Brazilian cannibal tribe. We placed ads in local newspapers, magazines and online looking for employees and voluntary flesh donors. On eBay a Flimé pâté had a bid of almost 900 €. The interest was so high we announced a press conference to give our message to journalists, photographers and TV teams. The overwhelming attention for the cannibal restaurant made meat consumption into an international issue. In total: we turned a budget of 5,000 € into a media value of 5,000,000 € and gained 50,000,000 sight contacts.

According to international studies, our high meat consumption is lethal to mankind and the environment. We wanted to make people all around the world aware of the shocking effects. We chose to use an off-limits subject to communicate our message and reach a high impact in as many channels as possible.

We spread rumors about the cannibal restaurant in as many channels as possible: On 13.08.2010 the homepage of the restaurant went online. Here we informed about the cuisine, which is inspired by a Brazilian cannibal tribe. We launched an interview with the chef on YouTube (18.08.2010), announcing the opening of the Flimé in Berlin. We placed ads in local newspapers, magazines and online looking for employees and voluntary flesh donors (18.08. – 28.08.2010). We wrote letters to the editors of papers such as "ZEIT" (No. 33/17.08.2010), concerned emails to politicians (20.08. – 22.08.2010) and listeners called into radio shows (25.08.2010). This all caused a huge discussion and made our idea into a self-seller in the press and social media. At peak of interest we announced a press conference (02.09.2010) to give our message to journalists, photographers and TV teams. And then the discourse really started – countless users worldwide discussed meat consumption.

The overwhelming attention for the cannibal restaurant made meat consumption an international issue: more than 700 news articles in over 60 countries, countless threads in blogs, forums and social media (e.g. 7 tweets per minute, contra groups on Facebook and even controversial video commentaries on YouTube). In total: we turned a budget of 5,000 € into a media value of 5,000,000 € and gained 50,000,000 sight contacts. The click rate on vebu.de went up fivefold. And most importantly: millions of people worldwide discussed about the Vegetarian Foundation’s message intensely: meat eats people.

Due to the budget of 5,000 € the aim was to communicate the issue to be as involving as possible. Since people generally aren‘t cannibals, the rumors about the restaurant made the campaign into a self-seller in the press and social media. The objective was not to communicate openly that the restaurant served human meat, even the menu was open to interpretation. This caused discussions and assumptions, which heightened the attention and credibility. And made the formerly unknown Vegetarian Foundation and its message into an international item.

The Vegetarian Foundation Germany is a NGO, whose main mission is to inform about the vegetarian lifestyle. We were asked to ignite a discussion about the consequences of our high meat consumption: Every three seconds a human dies of starvation – while vast amounts of crops and water are wasted on mass livestock. For the Vegetarian Foundation Germany this means: every bite of meat consists of human lives. So we took the effect of our meat consumption literally – and announced the opening of a cannibal restaurant.