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Giant anti-dairy billboards have appeared on one of the busiest stretches of motorway in the UK.
The boards, which will be in place for the first two weeks of October, are part of a hard hitting new campaign by Bristol-based animal welfare charity Viva! called Trash, which wants to ‘raise awareness of the forgotten victims of the dairy industry – male calves’. In addition to the boards, Viva! has created a YouTube adverts and will be holding street actions throughout October.
These are all part of the charity’s ongoing campaign to highlight the dark side of dairy.
Industry’s trash
The billboards feature young calves alongside the text ‘95,000 male calves shot in a year – the dairy industry’s trash’.
?They are 7.5m high and will target commuters travelling both northbound and southbound on the M5 near Birmingham. Over the two week period the billboards are estimated to reach 1.6 million people.
YouTube vegan advert
Viva’s YouTube advert – which was directed by Plant Based News Co- founder Robbie Lockie – will be the first vegan YouTube advert shown in the UK.
According to Viva!: “Paid YouTube mobile advertising is 84 percent more likely to receive attention than TV advertising and YouTube vlogging has been credited for bringing veganism into the mainstream. YouTube provides the perfect opportunity to broadcast a vegan message to an audience who are really listening.
“It was an honor to direct this advert for Viva!,”Lockie said. “The footage is heartbreaking – I hope it reaches the largest possible audience and strikes areal chord with as many people as possible.”
Street actions
The third prong of the Trash campaign is the street actions Viva! will host throughout October across the UK.
The educational street action events will encourage the public to choose plant-based products.
Events will take place in eight cities from Glasgow to London* and feature an eight-foot-tall inflatable milk carton. The street action events will collaborate with local vegan groups to inspire positive discussions about veganism and dairy alternatives.
The charity’s YouTube advert created by Plant Based News Co-founder Robbie Lockie
‘Lifetime of misery’
“The dairy industry subjects dairy cows and their calves to a lifetime of misery,” Juliet Gellatley, founder and director of Viva! said in a statement sent to Plant Based News.
“Dairy cows are artificially inseminated at a young age. They carry their babies for nine months – just like humans – but then have their calves cruelly ripped away from them just hours after birth. Male calves are viewed as useless in the dairy industry and so are brutally shot in the head.
“This practice is standard across the dairy industry and is used to produce ice-cream, milk, cheese butter and yogurt.
“Thankfully, the public are beginning to open their eyes to the reality of the dairy industry. The purpose of these adverts are to give a voice to the hidden victims of dairy and to further show that humans are not meant to consume cow’s milk. There has never been a better time to stop supporting this cruel industry by choosing to go dairy-free.”
*Street action
You can spot the street action events at the following locations
- London Leicester Square: October 5
- Bath Union Street: October 11
- Sheffield Parkway: October 19
- Glasgow Sauchiehall Street: October 20
- Manchester Market Street: October 21
- Oxford Cornmarket Street: October 24
- Nottingham City Centre: October 27
- Birmingham Centre City Tower: October 31
?Find out more about the campaign
