Army of Lady Gagas march on Parliament in #SaveSmithfield PR stunt

This morning, an ‘army’ of Lady Gaga lookalikes marched on Parliament to protest against the proposed demolition of Smithfield Market in east London.

“You’d have to be Gaga to rip the heart out of Smithfield” shouted one placard:

 

From the email sent over to me about the stunt:

A decision by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, is set to be made in August and could potentially see the historic British landmark ripped apart and turned into another modern office block.

The SAVE Campaign and Urban Space Management, supported by Cathedral Group, has presented a viable alternative  that would save the market’s beautiful architecture and restore the buildings to their former glory with a rich mix of markers, restaurants and quirky event and office spaces.

Singer Lady Gaga herself (she of 41.6m followers-fame) retweeted a couple of tweets about the protest, including the one below by PR Ottilie Ratcliffe. As a result, #SaveSmithfield trended in the UK for a short period of time.

According to this search on Topsy at the time of writing, #savesmithfield has been tweeted 1,800+ times today (helped enormously, as you’d expect, by Lady Gaga’s RTs). Eric Pickles has been tweeted almost 200 times, the second highest number of tweets to him in the last month:

Members of the public are being asked to tweet Pickles and join the ‘Save Smithfield Market’ Facebook page, but, as with all similar protest campaigns, social media stats are one thing – the proof will be in the actual result come August.

The thinking behind using Lady Gaga apparently stemmed from her infamous meat dress and various other food-related outfits (Smithfield is best known for its meat market).

Involved agency: Mischief PR

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