As part of this new campaign, we want to raise the credibility of the philosophy of Veganism, and position animal exploitation as an issue that warrants serious contemplation.
LOUISE DAVIES: The Vegan Society has just launched their most ambitious campaign yet, Future Normal… Their campaigns head, Louise Davies, explains the thinking behind it… “You’ll probably be surprised to hear that this is the first campaign focussed on animals that we’ve run in several years… The campaigns attempt to push for both individual behaviour change, and for system change via policy intervention…
Given the climate crisis, we’ve used more recent resources to try to get veganism high on the environmental agenda, and encourage behaviour change towards low-carbon plant-based diets. We’ve still got a way to go in getting that message out there, but we felt the time was right to refocus our energies on what is at the core of the vegan movement – animals.
Our political dialogues have been very much centred on the environmental angle – the feeling being that politicians would take seriously the science on climate-friendly diets, but the idea that we should care about animal exploitation is too emotive and lacking scientific weight. Strange really, as anyone who has spent time with farmed animals, would know you don’t need an academic paper to tell you they feel pain and emotions. Somehow we have normalised the exploitation of animals and any questioning of this exploitation is seen to be the domain of the immature or the extreme.
As part of this new campaign, we wanted to raise the credibility of the philosophy of veganism, and position animal exploitation as an issue that warrants serious contemplation, in line with other social justice issues. We’re developing a series of policy asks that call for animals to have the right to life, to self-authorised identity, and the right to live their lives free from human exploitation…
Working with creative agency, Up, the Vegan Society devised a host of campaign content for people to explore – all designed to provoke thinking and encourage reflection – from intimate ‘lightbulb moments’ from individuals who have embraced the Future Normal, to in-depth thought pieces with some challenging concepts, to a light-hearted quiz that inspires behaviour change…
We know that embracing a vegan lifestyle is a huge change for most people. We’ve aimed to create real depth of content and we invite people to explore and reflect on their values, their relationship with animals, and their behaviour. We hope that by inviting this contemplation at a deep level, this will result in meaningful, long-term changes”. SOURCE…
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