First it was Meat and Livestock Australia taking aim at vegans and now a new outdoor campaign for Oak is hitting the almond milk-drinking community.
Oak currently has a billboard on display that reads “Hungry Thirsty is pathetic, just like a vegan sausage”.
The vegan community is not impressed by the slogan, kicking off on Facebook with a bunch of fiery posts expressing their disdain for the “disgusting advertising”.
One person wrote: “Disgusted with your latest ad. Discriminating against a minority group to promote a product is not only immoral, it’s offensive and demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of your audience.”
Another wrote: “What a stupid, stupid publicity stunt. An already dying industry, you’ve now only hurt the industry more by portraying yourselves as a bunch or morons. Whoever does your marketing must be an uneducated bogan. How pathetic.”
It seems Oak posted the image to their Facebook but it now has been taken down. AdNews understands the campaign image is actually old but has been repurposed.
In an interesting twist, Oak’s creative is done by The Monkeys – the agency responsible for the Australia Day lamb ad that torched a vegan’s apartment earlier this year. The ad outraged the vegan community, but despite complaints, was cleared by the ad watchdog.
AdNews understands The Monkeys do not have anything against vegans, however they declined to comment on the controversy. AdNews has approached Oak for comment.
Not everyone on Facebook hated the Oak ad. One Facebook user said: “Love your ads, don’t worry about what vegans say.”
Another said: “Oh no not another whiney vegan pushing their quasi-religious agenda as they keep pounding us every day… Hey vegans, try having a life.”
Last night The Monkeys was crowned the Australian Effective Agency of the Year 2016 at the Effies. Read more here.
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