There are poorly thought out marketing campaigns and then there is this hot mess by Alpro.
Tweet number one:
And when vegans lost their collective mind over the above message:
Both screenshots were taken from the Alpro Twitter account on Thursday October 13, 2016.
So it would appear that Alpro would like us to view this tweet as a mis-step. A slip of the Twitter tongue.
You know, we all tweet shit we later regret and I think it is reasonable to give even large corporations the benefit of the doubt. There are real people running social media accounts and mistakes can happen.
However…
The view that people should eat meat and dairy in order to have a healthy body is not just a Twitter faux pas made by a social media intern, it is the whole basis of a healthy eating plan being marketed by Alpro to health professionals via their website.
Yes, Alpro are promoting the 2/3 to 1/3 ratio eating idea by sending a detailed desktop flip chart to anyone who considers themselves a health professional in order for them to use in consultations with patients or clients.
I cannot duplicate the content of The Smarter Solution to Eating Well toolkit here as I do not own the copyright but I can tell you the guide is made in line with Live Well for LIFE, a World Wildlife Fund UK initiative that boasts healthy eating combined with sustainable choices. Yep, meat is apparently now a sustainable choice for the planet.
The eating guide instructs the health professional and their clients several times that eating well is not about giving up meat and dairy and how that should not be the goal.
I understand that eating small amounts of meat and/or dairy won’t kill you or necessarily lead to instant ill health. I know lots of meat eaters who have lived long and what would appear to be health-filled lives. I am also for mainstream companies explaining to people who staunchly refuse to adopt vegan living how they can easily reduce meat and dairy intake.
However, I cannot get on board with a brand that produces exclusively vegan food promoting an eating plan that endorses AND RECOMMENDS eating meat and dairy. This Smarter Solution by Alpro explicitly states that cutting out animal products SHOULD NOT be the goal.
In addition, the eating plan guide completely ignores any mention of animal suffering and only briefly refers to environmental impacts of food choices. The connection between animal agriculture and environmental disaster is not explicitly made, or indeed even really suggested.
The series of ill-advised tweets are not stand alone mistakes, rather part of a broader campaign by Alpro that makes no mention of veganism while advising ‘health professionals’ to tell people to eat meat and dairy.
Not cool in my opinion.
Extra note: you can download the PDF of the eating plan by registering here. You just need to indicate what type of health professional you are. Simple as that! LOL.
Extra extra note: Alpro is owned by Danone, the largest dairy yoghurt company on the planet. Danone took over Alpro parent company WhiteWave in a deal announced July 2016.
Also!!!!!!
Some A-grade trolling by Oatly. Outstanding!
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