Reaching Out to the MTV Crowd

categories: Activism and Actions, Farm Animals, Vegan, Videos

Published February 26, 2009 @ 07:22AM PT

Among the topics being discussed in the vegan and animal rights blogosphere lately is Compassion Over Killing's latest set of efforts. One effort is taking a veg message to the MTV audience. Starting this week and for the next five, COK is again running two ads on MTV: "Exploring Your Food," in the style of a 1950s educational film (see embedded video below), and "A Side of Truth," taking place at a fast-food drive-through window and imparting the same message as the first ad. The ads have only 30 seconds to get a message out, so they just briefly mention some of the cruelties of factory egg, pig, and dairy farming in specific and then link to COK's sister site TryVeg.com.

I admit that because of people's mindsets these days and the active promotion of "humane" meat, "cage-free" eggs, and so on, these kinds of ads sometimes make me nervous because I worry that the focus on "factory farming" will just lead people to seek out non-factory-farmed products instead, without realizing that a number of the cruelties that go along with factory farming go along with all animal farming. These ads have just 30 seconds to make their point, so there's no time for deep exploration, but at some point, I'd really love to see COK or another nonprofit make another commercial like these, with the same brevity and perhaps even the same style, that focuses on issues that are true across animal ag. For example, the calf-taken-from-mother dairy issue that the ad points out is not a factory-farming-unique issue, but the mention of battery-caged hens could be changed, for example, to an alert about all the male chicks suffocated or ground up at birth or the practice of debeaking or even the transport and slaughter practices. And I also have mixed feelings about the word "vegetarian" rather than "vegan" being focused on in instances when "vegan" is what a group really means, but that's a topic for another day.

But I'm happy to say that COK reports good feedback on these campaigns (they've been airing such commercials since 2004), and it's great that a vegan message is getting airtime on MTV--that's pretty significant in and of itself. And many viewers whose attention is caught by the ads hopefully follow up by visiting TryVeg.com and learning more, including through reading the brief explanation of the "free-range myth" on that site. COK explains, "By targeting MTV’s teen and young adult viewing audience, we’re able to get the animals’ message directly to those shown by research to be the most receptive to vegetarian eating."

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Comments (6)

Our children our the answer! Instill compassion in the youth of the world and all will reep the benefits. No human and no animal should suffer. This is not a pipe dream unable to be attained. We must strive for it and I believe animal protection does. Nice work on the video. Made the right point indeed.

Posted by R R on 02/26/2009 @ 08:24AM PT
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Yeah, good point about "vegetarian" over "vegan." It's a compromise based on the privileged status of the word "vegetarian" and one I refuse to make despite the issues I have come up against... a vegetarian telling me she wants a vegetarian week and not a vegan week because vegans are vegetarians and vegetarians are not vegan, an entire club telling me to change the name of my campaign from "Go Vegan Week" to "Try Vegan Week," etc. You just have to be persistent and change the meaning of the word "vegan." Part of the reason "vegan" is such an underprivileged word is probably because of organizations like this reaffirming the privilege of vegetarianism even though vegetarianism has come in our culture to be strictly separate from veganism!

Posted by Luella - on 02/26/2009 @ 11:41AM PT
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I notice when I would say "vegetarian" people reacted positively, whereas now I say "vegan" and people cringe or immediately react with hostility. It's very VERY frustrating.

I just showed my son the attached video - this is the first time he's seen anything like it (up until now, we've only talked about the animals on farms). This was a nice tame way to show him the animals living conditions. He did react - he ran away.

I'm awaiting his reaction in the next few days... he's already a semi-vegetarian, so we'll see what new choices he makes.

Posted by Lisa Smolen on 02/26/2009 @ 06:54PM PT
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I think it's because people understand not wanting to kill animals, but it is technically possible to harvest eggs and dairy without any detrimental effect to the animals in question and therefore it seems more "extremist."

Posted by Kristen Ridley on 03/15/2009 @ 02:08AM PT
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Except that you're wrong. If you'll read further on this blog, Kristen, you'll see several posts explaining how it is not possible to "produce" dairy and eggs without "detrimental effect." That's a myth--an attractive one, but a myth all the same.

Dairy relies, completely and entirely, on repeatedly impregnating cows and repeatedly then stripping their calves away from them immediately after birth, so that the calves can't consume the milk intended for them that humans want instead. It is emotionally traumatic for mother and calf both. And the calves then are raised to be dairy cows themselves or are turned into veal--either way, they suffer enormously. And all dairy cows are eventually slaughtered just as beef cattle. And there's nothing "humane" about that.

And virtually all egg production, even "free range," still involves numerous cruelties as well, including such practices as debeaking. Furthermore, at the hatcheries that supply egg farms and factories with egg-laying hens, all male chicks--250 million a year in the U.S.--are killed by suffocation or being ground alive within a couple days of hatching. And finally, all "spent" egg-laying hens are slaughtered as well, and we all know there's nothing "humane" about the way chickens are transporter and slaughtered.

Posted by Stephanie Ernst on 03/15/2009 @ 06:47AM PT
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I watched these ads and I agree they are quite simplistic but taking into consideration that MTV audience ages range from the very young to the "much older" and given that most of the younger viewers will probably be seeing this kind of expose of truth for the first time, it can be quite shocking and life altering.

I remember my own shock and saddness when first discovering the horrible truth behind the cute cow pictures on milk containers and cartons of egg shells that we used to paint so beautifully on easter. I read that the younger population under age 20 (with young women leading the forefront) is the fastest growing collective of vegetarians and it is based more on the ideology of not eating sentient beings that we profess to love more than any other argument. With access to youtube videos of abusive animal treatment and a rising awareness of the possibility of life beyond the greed of animals for profit there is an anchoring of an idea, of an existence that pays homage to animals as an integral part of a world where they are honored for their gifts and contributions instead of being created only to be sold for the paper money we can get for their flesh.

Posted by amber lopez on 02/26/2009 @ 10:17PM PT
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Stephanie is an independent animal rights advocate, a vegan, a tree-hugging environmentalist, and a freelance editor and writer. She lives in St. Louis with an aging corgi-lab and an adolescent rescued pit bull.