This spot for, um, I guess it’s some vegan group or something (?), shows kids sitting down for dinner, and they’re cutting into pieces of meat, and the shot of the meat then cuts away to a shot of horrible animal mistreatment footage from some dirty abattoir somewhere, and then it cuts back to the kid looking at the piece of meat on their fork. It’s quite a powerful ad, serving its propaganda purpose quite well: meat eaters are all guilty of the mistreatment of a few animals caught on video tape in some undercover sting, as well as the murder of animals for food, etc. And while I like meat, I really don’t like factory farms or cruelty to animals. Like Temple Grandin said (I am paraphrasing): “We raise these animals for our food, so we owe them some respect.”* And we definitely owe them good treatment while they are alive, especially since they give everything for us.
But despite this TV spot packing a serious wallop, in my opinion they miss the opportunity to really let it sink in by lacking a powerful slogan. They have some text in the ad, but I don’t think it works as well as it could. I think they should have shown the footage of the ad, and then written on a title card: “See Food Differently.” That’s a play on the slogan for Red Lobster (theirs is: “Sea Food Differently”), and it would really stick in people’s minds, I think. I actually thought this slogan up as an (spec) ad for PeTA (who I make fun of a lot on here because they sometimes do very silly things, but I respect their mission a lot even if I am a devoted meat eater) a few months ago, using a similar kind of visual motif: show someone looking at meat on their plate, and then cut the shot to the living animal (only in mine, the animal was looking cute), and then back to the diner, etc., so I really think they’re onto something here (although by showing us such horrible footage, they might risk turning some people off to their message; and after all, most meat eaters do not condone such factory farm abuses as shown here, so they might get defensive rather than sympathetic, which could be counter-productive and defeat the purpose of the ad). It’s just lacking that one crucial element: a snappy, memorable slogan. And I think “See Food Differently” would be the perfect slogan to use for this kind of thing.
Now I doubt that an ad like this will make most carnivores consider going vegan, but it might make them want to act to help with a free-range livestock movement. I wish all meat was free range, and I don’t see why it isn’t. Wouldn’t it cost less to stop using all those antibiotics and hormones, and wouldn’t that offset the cost of expanding the amount of land used for the animals? I’d think so. And anyway, couldn’t the government appropriate some extra land where it’s necessary out in the wilderness? I thought the government owned lots and lots of land out in the country.
Here’s the long version of the ad (I saw a much shorter version on CNN tonight) (WARNING: This is difficult to watch, so viewer discretion is advised!):
* The actual Temple Grandin quote is (according to Wikipedia): “I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we’ve got to do it right. We’ve got to give those animals a decent life, and we’ve got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.”
