I knew this assignment would be a stretch for students in the advertising class, likely to shake them up to explore new information beyond the cliché of opposing factory farming and trying to regulate it—as though all animal farming doesn’t send innocent animals to the same abattoir. I hoped they’d understand the complexity of the issue—that you can’t regulate atrocities and that their individual choices and lifestyles could feed or starve an industry....Time to bring Gen Z into the fold for animals.
On May 3, I watched on screen and listened as 23 students from
Connecticut’s Norwalk Community College presented advertising
concepts about how to motivate Generation Z—now in their mid-teens
to mid-20s—to become vegan.
The “Principles of Advertising” class is taught by a friend, a
retired ad agency executive. He had reached out and asked me to
choose a topic I would like the students to focus an advertising
campaign on for Friends of Animals.
I said veganism, knowing that this demographic of nearly 68 million
in the U.S., born between 1997 and 2012, was concerned about Earth’s
future due to extreme weather disasters caused by the climate
crisis. Since animal farming drives global warming by releasing
greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, the assignment seemed like a
natural fit. If Gen Z stopped eating animal products, it would
conserve water and land and cut greenhouse gas emissions, yet noone
in the class was vegan much less vegetarian
The teacher gave the students the task of forming arguments about
the themes they researched and analyzed. They were told I’d be there
at the end of their semester to comment on their social media
advertising presentations.
I knew this assignment would be a stretch, likely to shake them up
to explore new information beyond the cliché of opposing factory
farming and trying to regulate it—as though all animal farming
doesn’t send innocent animals to the same abattoir. I hoped they’d
understand the complexity of the issue—that you can’t regulate
atrocities and that their individual choices and lifestyles could
feed or starve an industry.
The day I arrived to provide input on their assignment, the students
were divided into four groups of “ad agencies” to make their cases
for motivating their peers to go vegan. Their teacher first provided
an overview about the health benefits of adopting a vegan diet. Then
each group proceeded with their 20-minute presentations.
Group 1 imagined a taste barrier to vegan food since research shows
Gen Zers feel they will miss out on “good food” because of the taste
of meat alternative products. They presented young celebrity chefs
as people who could influence Gen Z to try appetizing vegan dishes
including vegan meat analogs. They projected that Vegan
Worcestershire, seasonings and other umami flavoring could make food
taste more like meat, which (somehow) might make it more appetizing.
Group 2 had the compelling theme of addressing the climate crisis
while tying vegan food into reducing greenhouse gasses and global
warming. They mentioned saving water when animals and land weren’t
used for animal farming. The subject of a scorched Earth resonated
with them, and they seemed motivated to influence others with what
they learned.
Group 3 focused on how to escape heart disease, diabetes, high
cholesterol, Alzheimer’s and other diet- related afflictions. When I
asked how many in their group had family members with health issues,
five out of six hands were raised, while several looked anguished.
One student said her dancer friends were vegan, and she thought that
better body weight was associated with vegan food.
Group 4 focused on animal rights and compassion. They showed the
intense cruelty of taking calves from mother cows and sending
animals to slaughter. They proposed showing videos of a cow watching
her calf in a line-up to slaughter and they had visuals of pigs,
dead chickens and other animals in distress because people were
intent on eating them. Every student in this group appeared
changed—moved by the morality of the issue.
I applauded the energy that went into such thoughtful presentations
and told them I hoped they’d work for the change they wanted to see
in an Earth left in their hands.
One student revealed that after participating in the assignment, she
was open to trying a vegan diet. Several agreed that it would feel
supportive to go vegan with friends and partners, and all indicated
that the assignments had opened their minds. I left the class
feeling hopeful.
We’ve asked an ad agency to consider the students’ concepts and
develop a pro bono vegan ad campaign for Friends of Animals and Gen
Z.
Time to bring Gen Z into the fold for animals.text