Ad promoting meat and dairy products receives 500 complaints
…all of which have been rejected
The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board recently invested £1.5m in an campaign dubbed ‘We Eat Balanced‘. The idea behind the campaign is to promote a balanced, healthy diet, which includes vegetables and fruits as well as meat and dairy products. Naturally, this sparked controversy with vegans who called for the ad to the banned: 500 complaints were filed but the regulatory body rejected their protests.
The campaign suggested people should follow a ”varied and balanced diet alongside a healthy lifestyle“ and claimed “beef, pork, lamb and milk contain vitamin B12, an essential nutrient not naturally present in the vegan diet.”
This made vegans very angry. They argued the advert implied people can only get B12 from meat, when it can also be found in plant milks, soy products and breakfast cereal.
Humane League UK, The Vegan Society, Compassion in World Farming UK, Four Paws, PETA, Surge Campaigning CIC, Brinsley Animal Rescue and Viva! all branded the ads ‘misleading’.
“We still strongly believe by running these adverts the AHDB set out to purposely mislead the public at a time when a record-breaking number of people were trying veganism through the Veganuary campaign,” said Louise Davies, Head of The Vegan Society. ”Despite the outcome we hope the huge number of complaints submitted to the ASA will encourage the ADHB and similar bodies to think twice before resorting to such scare tactics again in future.“
AHDB’s Chief Communications and Market Development Officer Christine Watts said they were “delighted” with the ruling.
“For British farming this is an important day as we can continue to communicate the benefits around consuming red meat and dairy as part of a balanced diet,” said Watts.
Where do you stand? I think there are two significant issues with veganism, one of them is ideological and the other one is practical. In practical terms, veganism is a first world luxury, to even suggest vegan diets could be followed (or imposed, which is what some would want) globally is unfeasible. And the other problem is that vegans absolutely believe they’re right and you, meat eater, are wrong. They claim the moral high ground and use it to justify being aggressive towards people who make different choices, because meat eater are monsters, in their view.
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Comments (4)
Human beings are omnivores. I needn't say anymore. However, I do know lots of nice vegans, and I enjoy following the culinary journeys of FT vegans, and I doubt they would be in these lobbyists. Dare I say it's a bit like the antivaxxers in that just a few members of a society seek to be divisive and enforce their opinions on others. Each to their own I say, but it is madness to say we shouldn't eat meat when we are inherently omnivores.
Amen, Larry!
This is why vegans get a bad reputation with us meat eaters. I am proud that we do not have this forced guilt and division on FoodTribe. Just eat what you want and be happy.
I don't get it. In general. Society used to be tolerant. Now every group of people who consider themselves different is trying to force their opinion upon others. And when you fire back - you're the bad one for not being tolerant. Well, tolerance goes both ways! I respect your life choices and you respect my life choices - this is how IT SHOULD work! Ever seen Natali to abuse someone's meat dish? No! Natali is the real life example of tolerance! 😊 And let's be clear on one thing - most vegans today weren't born vegans. They became vegans at some point! The same way most antivaxxers, which Larry mentioned, had their full set of shots before they were old enough to have an opinion!