To create interest in the OneKind movement, Advocates for Animals created a movie hoax about a forthcoming film entitled ‘They’re Here’.

The charity was also rebranding at the time and the hoax was part of an awareness raising campaign. It sparked speculation about a major new sci-fi motion picture.

A specially created ‘They’re Here’ website carried a countdown to 10th October (the official launch date of OneKind) and sandwich board carriers appeared in the streets of London, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Their signs proclaimed, ‘They’re Here – 10.10.10’. Even the people wearing the boards had no idea what they were promoting.

‘They’re Here’ was in fact a short film showing a disparate group of individuals hearing, via the media, that creatures, with incredible abilities, had been discovered across the earth. The pull back and reveal was that these creatures were in fact the diverse range of animals populating the planet. One of the stars of the film was actor Angus McInnes, whose movie credentials include Star Wars, Judge Dredd and Superman II.

‘They’re Here’ won the top prize at the 2nd annual Movieviral awards. In a statement, Movieviral said: “OneKind’s They’re Here campaign had us all on the edge of our seats thinking it was for an alien invasion film, then gave us a great twist that shows that entertainment media don’t have to be the only kids on the viral marketing block”.

‘They’re Here’ was also selected from a pool of over 1400 candidates for the final 16 shortlist of YouTube’s DoGooder video awards 2011.