A controversial vegan advertisement debuted on UK television channels over the weekend.
Tom Bursnall, director of plant-based food company Miami Burger and producer of the advert, expects it will spark conversation and backlash.
Bursnall created the 30-second ad in collaboration with the charity Vegan Friendly.
See the ad in full below:
Making the connection
The ad encourages viewers to “Make the Connection” between the food they eat and the animals it is sourced from.
It centers on a group of people as they lament topical animal welfare issues such as plastic in the ocean, bullfighting, and wet markets, all while tucking into a hearty, meaty meal.
“Plastic straws are ruining the oceans. The poor fish don’t stand a chance!” one woman says, before taking a bite of fish from the plate before her.
As she does, the commercial switches to images of fish moving down a processing line and being graphically butchered. It then switches back to a close-up of the woman’s mouth tearing fish off her fork with her teeth.
“They just don’t care about animals like we do, babe,” her husband responds, taking a bite of pork. The camera switches to a piglet kept in dire conditions, meat being butchered, and blood splashing onto a takeaway container.
Cognitive dissonance
Speaking to Plant Based News (PBN), Bursnall elaborated on the concept:
“Utilizing uncomfortably close-up camera shots and interwoven clips of animals being slaughtered for consumption, the cognitive dissonance reaches a crescendo as one character opines: ‘can’t we treat all living things the same, please?’”
“All of the actors are vegan and did their work at a discount to help the cause,” Bursnall noted. “We also only used vegan food, of course!”
The advert ends with the three people looking down at their food in disgust as they begin to make the connection.
Then there is a link to maketheconnection.io, a page hosted by Vegan Friendly that gives meat substitute recommendations, along with health and animal welfare information.
Produced by creative agency Hotwolf, the commercial will feature across high-profile UK channels such as Channel 4, Sky Max, and Sky Cinema over the next few weeks.
This is in order “to highlight the hypocrisy of self-proclaimed animal lovers who still eat meat,” Bursnall said.
Vegan Friendly partnership
The ad comes just over a year after Vegan Friendly’s last commercial aired on the UK’s Sky and Channel 4.
The ad caused outrage and attracted more than 200 complaints.
“I envisage this one generating more,” Bursnall told PBN, referring to the latest project.
The ad was originally aired in Israel. There, it reached three million people, approximately 35 percent of Israel’s population. An edited version hit UK TV screens after Bursnall launched a crowdfunding campaign to pay for a primetime slot.
“I want everyone who watches TV, Video on Demand, and YouTube to see this advert,” Bursnall said last year. “The aim is to help awaken millions of people from the cognitive dissonance slumber we humans have regretfully found ourselves in.”
“I will stop at nothing to get these stirring videos in front of millions of people,” he added.
The new “Make the Connection” advert comes a month after another vegan charity, Viva!, launched its “Takeaway the Meat” campaign.
The ad – which sees a piglet delivered to a couple who ordered pulled pork from the mock food delivery app, “Just Meat” – debuted on Channel 4 on Valentine’s Day, reaching an estimated 16 million viewers.
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These sorts of attacks on people are not constructive, they make people defensive of their positions and bring up their defensive shields. They don’t hear anything, they don’t listen, they just bury their heads deeper.
This is NOT a constructive way to move people towards eating less meat. This is why people selling plant based foods do not use such themes.
This does only 2 things:
it drives a wedge between those who want to eat meat and those who don’t. It creates a war.
It make those who eat meat but also eat a bit of fake meat, eat less fake meat, be less open to reducing the amount of meat in their diet. It stops people moving in the right direction because they now feel pressured and they rebel against that, just as the Ukrainians fight the pressure form the Russians.
This is a retrograde step that harms animals by slowing the increase in fake meat consumption.
I must respectfully disagree. The ad simply shows people suddenly (at the end) waking up to the hypocrisy of their own actions. The people in the ad aren’t being “attacked,” they are having sudden “aha!” revelations that empower them to consider making a significant lifestyle change toward honoring animal rights by not participating in the capture or confinement and butchering of animals as “units of production.”
Yes, it’s true that consumers of animal products may feel their cognitive dissonance being triggered and their “defense mechanisms against anxiety” (Freud) such as denial, rationalization, etc., getting aroused– but that’s how many great social justice and eco-justice movements have gained momentum, when more persons from the mainstream join by suddenly growing a conscience!
Thank you!!! What would animal eaters do if they had to pick up that animal like the lamb and feel the heart beat, the warm breath and warmth of an animal then think it’s okay to slaughter this innocent animal for no other reasons but being a selfish heartless human being. Why not include cats & dogs that most people have in their home, their family member. If this is the way to get carnivores to think before they eat dead flesh, then it’s fine with me. We animal lovers who actually LOVE them, we fight for them as they have no voice to. I will continue to do so until my last day on this planet.
Yeap, actually what would be better is to show how happy farm animals play, chase balls, fetch sticks, perform tricks, all the stuff that people think only cats and dogs can do. and then end the video with those farms animals on the plate while the pet is on the lap XD I think this will strike deep
It’s a hard call. You are probably correct that some meat eaters will double down when put on the spot, whilst others may start to reconsider whether eating meat is ethically responsible. What’s beyond question is that the meat industry does a great job of hiding the truth of how meat gets from field (factory shed?) to plate. I’d say it’s better for consumers to be confronted with the unpalatable facts, then they can make their own decision.
Classing vegans and vegan propaganda in the same vein as Ukrainians & Russians is wrong. Zero comparisons. There is no war here, but sounding like a carnie that you are, you wouldn’t understand as you don’t seem to have that compassion in you. Very sad indeed.
I find the ad is done well to perhaps make some people pause and rethink what they’re doing. The headline of the article, on the other hand, is definitely divisive. As a long-time vegetarian and fairly new vegan, the title made me cringe. It does more harm than good to further the agenda of ‘us’ and ‘them.’
No it doesn’t Its people like you trying to create a war. You want a the rest of the meat eaters to get polarized rather that wake up to the truth. That is why you make it a point to hunt for such articles and videos and try to post your propaganda and fake narratives.
What you don’t realize is the major mistake you make it is create group an identity politics trying to make “Vegans” as different people. REALITY CHECK!!! 99.9999% of all vegans were meat eaters. It is just such videos that have inspired us to wake up to the horror of crimes were committing not only to animals but to our own health and we went vegan.
You trying to create these 2 groups of people based on their diet is proof that only you are trying to create a war. People like you are trying to drive a wedge.
Otherwise we all are humans and almost all of us vegans were meat eaters. We are no different from meat eaters now than when we used to eat meat.
Only different from the likes of you! You are trying to turn this into a war only because you don’t want to stop eating meat. Its sad actually.
You know what’s cognitively dissonant? Acting like you’re morally superior because you don’t eat meat, but then celebrating something that “pisses off” the “bad bad meat-eaters”.
By caring so much about the opinion of people who eat meat, all you do is show how insecure you are about yourself.
Triggered meat eater alert. Not its not because we think we are superior its just that you meat eaters are so predictable. You don’t mind looking like complete jerks or making a fool of yourself when arguing about nutrition. In the end you get pissed cause well you are wrong about everything. So its just that you are predictable.
What do you know about my diet? Nothing. Your ad hominem attack just proves your intellectual inadequacy.
Next it will be cannibalism