Social experiment thinks outside the cage

People willing to spend 40 hours living like a caged animal are being sought in Auckland.

It’s part of a marketing campaign to raise awareness surrounding factory farming of chickens, and is set to take place during the coldest month of the year.

'Caged: A social experiment' is a collaboration between animal activists SAFE and content creators Manifest. It is scheduled for a secret location in Grey Lynn on June 2.

Yoson An, creative director of Manifest hatched the idea as a way of getting SAFE’s message across.

“I’m very passionate about ending factory farming, I wanted to do something different to get the message across, [and] social experiments are rare in New Zealand so I thought it would be interesting.”

Manifest began its collaboration with SAFE after being approached to create some advertisements regarding caged hens.

Manifest will choose the 40 volunteers, as well as handle set design and advertising. Video producer Luke McLeod told Te Waha Nui the event will also be filmed.

“The whole thing will be live streamed so people can watch at home, the general public will also be allowed to view the cage.”

“We’re running the whole event with input from SAFE, basically everything an advertising agency would do. We tell SAFE what we want and they say 'yes' or 'no'.”

Creature comforts, should you be wondering, will be spare. There’s little in the way of privacy – but a toilet will be provided.

One participant who will be going in the cage is social media influencer Tian Tan, who said he feels strongly about animal rights.

“It’s a good cause and it sounds fun, factory farming is an important issue and I’m all about that vegan lifestyle.”

Mr Tan said his biggest concern about going in the cage is not being able to shower.

“The hardest part will be boredom and feeling dirty, I’m afraid I might get cranky and make things hard for the other participants.”

Participants will also be raising money for the event which will be donated to SAFE.

SAFE’s public relations manager Amanda Sorrenson said she was not able to comment on the event for “strategic reasons”. She urged readers to go to the event’s website, which is not yet up.

Anyone interested in volunteering should email hello@manifest.com