We Eat Balanced? Or We Eat Biased? – the dangers of food campaigns with an agenda.

Food advertising is a powerful force. We often discount it as something mundane and neutral, but this is not the case. This article will focus on one particularly misleading campaign within the food industry, and how media publications can be used to push opposite sides of the meat debate. The advert we are focussing on can be found at the citation numbered here.1

The ‘(We) Eat Balanced’ campaign was launched by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (4th January 2021, UK). Its centrepiece is an advert promoting the benefits of meat and dairy products. This campaign is important because it reflects the wider mainstream narratives of food culture. We will analyse the advert to demonstrate how media outputs can manipulate facts and imagery to persuade the public of a certain idea.

Firstly, the advert describes meat and dairy as “natural” and sustainable. This can be seen to be misleading for a few reasons. While the advert shares footage of rolling hills and grazing animals, it is predicted that over 70% of farmed animals in the UK are factory farmed.2 This denies animals the ability to express their natural behaviours and is highly resource intensive.3 Although some animals are free range, the majority are not, and this was neglected by the advert – making it misleading.

It has also been claimed that animal agriculture is not only responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions, but also “mass wildlife extinction" due to the vast amount of land required to accommodate an animal-based diet.4 It has also been said that “avoiding consumption of animal products delivers far better environmental benefits than trying to purchase sustainable meat and dairy”.5 This has been backed up by UN experts, claims a recent BBC publication.6Therefore, ‘Eat Balanced’ is neglecting many scientific studies that outline the negative effects of meat production and consumption to promote its ideas – this results in the advertisement being misleading.

Secondly, the ‘Eat Balanced’ advert suggests how “wonderful” it is that people can attain the essential nutrients they need to be healthy and vital from meat and dairy. Although animal products do contain essential nutrients (such as B12 and protein), it is misleading to describe these products as “wonderful” sources of them. Reinforcing this idea can be said to be problematic due to the large body of research which proves that attaining nutrients in such a way is unsustainable and unhealthy. For example, researchers at the University of Oxford found strong evidence that foods associated with the largest disease risk —unprocessed and processed red meat—also has the largest negative environmental impacts.7 Additionally, the NHS has claimed that: ‘there is likely to be a link between red and processed meat and bowel cancer’.8Furthermore, researchers at Harvard Medical School provide "clear evidence that regular consumption of red meat, especially processed meat, contributes substantially to premature death".9

The ‘Eat Balanced’ advert claims that ‘meat and dairy naturally provide nutrients, including the essential vitamin B12 not naturally present in a vegan diet’. The advert fails to mention, however, that farm animals are commonly supplemented B12, which then binds to their muscles and is transferred to the person eating it.10 This can be said to be as natural as obtaining nutrients from fortified plant milks and marmite. Therefore, it could be argued that the advert is misleading; by implying that only vegan diets involve vitamin supplementation. The advert also fails to make clear that supplemented vitamin B12 is not a negative thing.With this, the NHS has stated that “with good planning and an understanding of what makes up a healthy, balanced vegan diet, you can get all the nutrients your body needs”.11 These studies have been deliberately discounted by the ‘Eat Balanced’ campaign, meaning that it is not providing a fair and balanced publication.

Of course, all adverts have an agenda because they are trying to sell a product or idea. Both vegans and meat-eaters alike are guilty of bias and unnecessary demonisation. However, when misinformation has the potential to harm the health of individuals and the environment, it is vital that we expose it. It has been said that: “continuing to eat the way we do threatens societies, through chronic ill health and degradation of Earth’s climate, ecosystems, and water resources”.12 While we acknowledge that people may choose to eat animal products for several reasons, this does not justify the production and publication of misleading information to encourage people to decide their type of diet, as the ‘Eat Balanced’ campaign has done.

In conclusion, ‘We Eat Balanced’ claims to help people make an “informed personal choice” about their diet, but this is misleading because the advertisement is not making people aware of both sides of the argument for and against the consumption of meat. Through suggestive language and visuals, this media campaign could be implying that one cannot live healthily on a plant-based diet. The contestation over this campaign has been national. Consequently, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is now investigating the integrity of the advertisement to determine whether it should be taken down. An interesting video on this advert can also be found at this citation here.13

By Evie Marshall and Ethan O’Gorman Davies.

Bibliography

[1] ‘We Eat Balanced’, – We Eat Balanced (2021) <https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=we+eat+balanced&&view=detail&mid=0D365A14A70F95AB0ACA0D365A14A70F95AB0ACA&&FORM=VRDGAR> [accessed 1 March 2021]

2 ‘DO YOU LIVE IN A FACTORY FARM HOTSPOT?’, Compassion in World Farming, (2021) <https://www.ciwf.org.uk/factory-farm-map/> [accessed 1 March 2021]

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4 ‘Animal Agriculture Causing Extinctions’ World Animal Foundation (2020) <https://www.worldanimalfoundation.com/advocate/farm-animals/params/post/1280000/animal-agriculture-causing-extinctions#:~:text=Animal%20agriculture%20is%20the%20leading%20cause%20of%20species,landmass%20and%20accounts%20for%2075%25%20of%20global%20deforestation> [accessed 1 March 2021]

5 Olivia Petter, ‘Veganism is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce our environmental impact, study finds’, INDEPENDENT, (24 September 2020)

6 Roger Harrabin, ‘Plant-based diet can fight climate change – UN’, BBC NEWS, (8 August 2019)

7 University of Oxford, Plant-based foods are good for both health and the environment (2021) <https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2019-10-29-plant-based-foods-are-good-both-health-and-environment> [accessed 1 March 2021]

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9 ‘Cutting red meat-for a longer life’, Harvard Men’s Health Watch (2012) <https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/cutting-red-meat-for-a-longer-life> [accessed 1 March 2021]

10 Plant Based News, ‘Eat Balanced’ TV Ad – Meat Industry Propaganda? (2021) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PobqdA4TmeM> [accessed 1 March 2021]

11 NHS, The vegan diet – Eat well (2018) <https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/the-vegan-diet/> [accessed 1 March 2021]

[1]2 University of Oxford, Plant-based foods are good for both health and the environment (2021) <https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2019-10-29-plant-based-foods-are-good-both-health-and-environment> [accessed 1 March 2021]

[1]3 Plant Based News, ‘Eat Balanced’ TV Ad – Meat Industry Propaganda? (2021) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PobqdA4TmeM> [accessed 1 March 2021]