Exploited Animals: I Can’t Believe It’s Not Better

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

Remember when I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter was best-known for Fabio starring in its commercials?

Things have changed. Now they’re glorifying chickens. Wait, sorry, by glorifying, I mean exploiting. Here’s a lady, blow drying a beautiful, clean, white hen into fluffed perfection. Because, and here’s the kicker, that’s how you get fluffy eggs. That is, until I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, a “simpler way to fluffier eggs”:

What. The. Hell?

You know what I can’t believe? I can’t believe it’s not better for exploited animals.  Isn’t it bad enough that we raise them for their excretions and their meat? Must we also make them star in our commercials? Sure, the hen in this ad has it so much better than her sisters. But she’s still being exploited.

I doubt that any eggs involved in most people’s morning breakfasts are the product of hens that look as beautiful as the one in the above video. The sad truth of it is that most layer hens are spent after a short life in a cramped, stinking building full of other layer hens. Their feathers are missing, their feet have melded into the bottoms of wire cages (which they share with too many others). No, this isn’t pretty.

And, you know, this “not” butter is still a product of the dairy industry, right? The cows involved in supplying ingredients for this margarine don’t fare much better. I feel I have to point out that the product is now using the trademarked phrase “Deliciously Simple” on one of its new spreads. I’ve discussed using words like this (aka: greenwashing) previously in Chobani: Go Real? Get Real!.

For the record, I looked through the (very purposefully not listed here) I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter website and couldn’t easily find an ingredients list. I did find that yogurt is used in at least one of their products, but I had to look at the “Healthcare Professionals” page to find it. I can also confirm that “the source of