On October 6, 2016, PETA aired its newest commercial just before the Canadian Thanksgiving. This commercial showed a little girl saying a prayer before she and her family ate their Thanksgiving meal, but it wasn’t your typical prayer. The young girl stated, “Dear God, thank you for the turkey we’re about to eat and for the turkey farms, where they pack them into dark, tiny little sheds for their whole lives. And special thanks to all the chemicals and dirt and poop that’s in the turkey we’re about to eat.” She continues to say more shocking things as her family gasps and cringes. The purpose of this commercial was to make society aware of the awful treatment of turkeys, experience cognitive dissonance, and turn vegan in protest.

Cognitive dissonance is when a person is in a situation and they experience conflicting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors that cause them to feel uncomfortable. This theory was developed by Leon Festinger back in 1957 who stated that people “have an inner drive to seek consistency and are motivated by uncomfortable feelings to adjust our attitudes to relieve the conflict.” Cognitive dissonance is a strong factor because nobody likes to feel conflicted with their own beliefs, so they justify everything.

When people watched PETA’s commercial, they most likely experienced cognitive dissonance. On one hand, Thanksgiving is a fun time of year where they eat delicious food with their close friends and family, but on the other hand, eating that delicious food is condoning the inhumane treatment of turkeys.

The Canadians watching this commercial probably felt very conflicted, and most likely reacted to the cognitive dissonance in one of three ways. First, they could fall victim to their inner turmoil over the inhumane treatment of turkeys and vouch to not eat turkey anymore. Second, they could attempt to justify it by saying “I’m just one person, and if I eat one turkey, it’s not that big of a deal.” Lastly, they could quickly change the channel to avoid watching the rest of the commercial altogether.

PETA was smart when incorporating cognitive dissonance into their commercial strategy because it not only pulled at the viewer’s heart-strings, but it made them feel personally conflicted.

Did you experience cognitive dissonance after watching this video? Which way did you react to it? Let us know in the comments!