Abstract

The depiction of pigs as caricatures and happy farmed animals represents a strategic marketing ploy on behalf of the U.S. Big Agriculture industry to distance the public from real pigs and dull empathy toward farmed animals. As two animal-loving photographers and animal rights activists who live in North Carolina (the state with the second-largest producer of pork in the United States), we created a billboard advocacy project called “Picturing Pigs” to counter Big Agriculture's marketing through positive imagery of rescued pigs. This article contains three parts. First, we discuss the caricatures of pigs in advertising and the media and critique these depictions through a critical animal studies lens. We focus on how these depictions impact how we think about and treat pigs. Second, we discuss our “Picturing Pigs” billboard campaign featuring photography that highlights the benevolent and positive attributes of pigs—qualities missing from media representations. We discuss the resistance we met and the impact the project has had. Third, we share Lucy's story, a piglet we met while working on “Picturing Pigs.” Lucy's story provides an example of the entanglements that pigs face being seen as anything other than a product.