The newest marketing campaign for vegan chicken company VFC celebrates British pop culture with references to Morecambe and Wise and Queen.
Owners of the company Adam Lyons and Matthew Glover, as well as Stewart McGuckin, its director of sales, reproduced a number of notable scenes from British popular culture history, such as the Beatles’ famous Abbey Road crossing and the 1966 World Cup victory.
Due to their unconventional marketing techniques, Lyons and Glover—the latter of whom is famous for co-founding Veganuary in 2014—have amassed a sizable following on Instagram.
They frequently share images of criticism non-vegans have left about the business and periodically name a “Cluckwit of the Month.” Recently, an advertisement on the London Underground featured these screenshots.
Following its US launch in October of last year, VFC also recently reproduced a number of American pop culture moments.
Taking a stand
The company VFC, which stands for “Vegan Friend Chick*n,” sells a variety of plant-based KFC-inspired foods that look and taste just like the real thing, including Chick*n Fillets and Popcorn Chick*n.
But the company does more than just offer meat substitutes that resemble the genuine thing. Another important aspect of its operations is activism. For instance, it just published an exposé on a KFC-supplied chicken farm.
The study was prompted by KFC’s Behind the Bucket, a short film that was made public. In it, a well-known YouTuber gave viewers a tour of the farm and demonstrated how chickens may be provided with fresh straw, perches, and what appears to be enough room.
The same farm was visited by VFC, who labeled the film as “disingenuous” and “utterly misleading.” When its own campaigners went there, they discovered that there was little straw on the ground and that it was “sodden with animal feces.”
They also saw several sick and injured animals, dead chickens on the floor, plastic-wrapped bales, and perches that were inaccessible to the birds.
“People have a right to know how filthy and crowded these farms are; how birds suffer and die right there in the sheds; and that the bins overflow with the carcasses of the poor animals who could not survive even a few weeks in such conditions,” said Glover.
Cruelty in chicken farming
Over 72 billion chickens are murdered for food globally each year, making them by far the most cruelly treated land creatures on the planet (for reference, humans kill around 80 billion land animals in total).
In the UK, factory farming accounts for about 95% of all chicken production (it is 99 percent in the US).
Broiler chickens (those grown for meat) are often killed when they are around six weeks old. They have been selectively engineered to grow substantially quicker than they would naturally.
Thousands of additional chickens are frequently housed in crowded sheds with factory-farmed chickens. Due to their unnatural growth and the settings they are kept in, they will not have the opportunity to engage in natural behaviors and frequently suffer injuries.
“We were not surprised to find that things were this bad because this is the everyday reality of intensive chicken farming,” said Glover.
“But it leaves us with just one question: did the farm lie to KFC about its welfare standards, or is KFC lying to the rest of us?”
Source: “VFC’s Latest Marketing Campaign Is A Celebration Of British Pop Culture” by Plant Based News
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