Why Cows Are Owed the Courtesy of Critical Thinking

By Published On: 14 April 2014Last Updated: 17 January 2017

It's up to all of us to step away from the magazine, the billboard, and the television and explore what it is we're buying and why.

What's in this post

This is part of our Ad Nauseam series – a look at advertising through the ethical vegan lens.

I am tired of cow commercials.

I don’t even need to be looking up at my screen to know they’re being exploited. Take this commercial for Lactaid:

All it takes is that congenial, light-hearted voice: “C’mon, would I lie about this?” It brings me out of whatever task I’m doing while the tv plays in the background, and it pisses me off.

It’s the same with those California Dairy Cow commercials, touting “nutritious milk” and forgetting that it’s nutritious for baby cows, not humans. “Make us a part of your family,” the ads say. Which part: the one that we enslave, steal from, and slaughter?

Take a look at the Dairy, Eggs & Cheese section of iSpot.tv. It’s full of ads – including when they last aired – that gloss over, or downright hide, the truth behind what we try to pass off as food.

“Simple little stories” about Kraft Singles. “Make the most of your morning milk,” touts Milk Life. Milk Life, a product full of death for cows. Oh, and my personal favorite, Chobani, is all over the place. There is still nothing “simple,” “true,” or “real” about their Greek yogurt, and for reasons why, I suggest you read, Chobani: Go Real? Get Real!

Steer WFAS

I don’t know why, specifically, it angers me that cows are exploited so much in the advertising for products made from their milk and milk products. Perhaps it’s the thought of anthropomorphizing someone that is treated so cruelly in a way that makes it sound like they are fine with it. Or maybe it’s those someones I’ve met: Dylan, Elvis, Ralphie and Andy, at Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. These four boys were products of the dairy industry – meant to be veal, and rescued. Something tells me any of their mothers, could they communicate to you in a way you’d understand, would tell you not to believe one word of the garbage spewed by the dairy industry. So would the rest of the guys and gals at WFAS.

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Misleading the Masses: How to Have an Eco-Friendly Easter

I get why advertising is done the way it’s done – I’ve binge-watched enough episodes of Mad Men to know that commercials and print ads are made to evoke something in us that makes us want what they’re selling. But I think that those that are exploited in those ads – be they cows or chickens or pigs or fish or human beings, for God’s sake – are owed the courtesy of critical thinking. The ad agencies and the companies that hire them aren’t going to give you all of the information. It’s up to all of us to step away from the magazine, the billboard, and the television and explore what it is we’re buying and why.

Photo credit: Daria Zeoli

One Comment

  1. KD Traegner April 14, 2014 at 3:08 pm - Reply

    This. x10000% Yes.

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HELLO! I'm KD Angle-Traegner.

Writer, activist, and founder of Four Urban Paws Sanctuary. I’m on a mission to help people live a vegan life. Read more about KD…

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