A new advertising campaign from the UK’s leading vegan charity, Viva!, asks the people of the East Midlands to question their food choices and to choose vegan.
So why have Viva! chosen the East Midlands for this campaign? Nottingham has always been a hub of vegan activity and as veganism continues to soar in popularity, Nottingham and the surrounding areas are becoming even more vegan friendly. In 2017 Viva! hosted one of their most successful Viva! Vegan Festivals in Nottingham, attracting over 2,000 people with a host of delicious vegan food, talks and cookery demonstrations.
Across the East Midlands from March 9 to April 5 2020 eye-catching billboards promoting veganism will be attracting attention from the public and asking them to re-consider their dietary choices. The campaign will be visible on gigantic billboards, bus shelters and other city sites mainly in Nottingham and Leicester but also appearing in Grantham, Northampton, Hinckley, Heanor, Beeston and Derby.
Whilst conducting research on how to best approach the somewhat uncomfortable topic of eating animals, Viva!’s director Juliet Gellatley discovered that stronger, more direct messaging about animal consumption impacted meat eaters the most and was harder to ignore. Based on this research Viva! are using two different designs to convey their vegan message ‘What’s Your Favourite Animal to Eat’ and ‘When did you last kill an animal?’.
Juliet Gellatley explains the importance of this campaign and the direct messaging “Veganism has exploded and today it is more popular than ever. However, despite this surge in popularity many people are still unaware that the neatly packaged animal products on supermarket shelves come from factory farms where animals are kept in shocking conditions. We’re constantly told that the UK has the highest animal welfare standards in the world, but this just isn’t true.
In 2018, over one billion animals were slaughtered for the food industry in the UK(1), most of which were factory farmed. Factory farmed animals are kept in cramped and squalid conditions, pumped full of antibiotics to minimise diseases created by such unnatural conditions.
Viva! are using these billboards to capture the public’s attention and raise the intriguing question of why we love certain animals yet eat others. Britain is a nation of animal lovers and over 50 per cent of the population has a companion animal (2). We’re hopeful that this campaign will resonate with these people and encourage them to choose vegan.”
Viva! are asking the public to take snaps of the campaign and share on social media using the hashtags #favouriteanimal or #chooseveganbillboards.
Viva!’s website has everything you need to know about cutting down or removing animal products from your diet. It has never been easier to try veganism www.viva.org.uk.
