Vegetarians and vegans, I have a question for you....?

Question

I'm having a "debate" if you will, with a few people so I'd like to get your opinion.

When you see a commercial/billboard/ advertisement with meat on it (raw or cooked), talking about how juicy and delicious it is, do you get offended? or feel slightly sickened?

Also, when a place that sells mostly chicken, uses a chicken as their mascot, or a place that sells mostly pork or beef, uses a happy, smiling pig, or cow, does that offend you?

I dont eat meat, and I find pictures of meat kind of gross, and it irritates me when people use a cartoon image of whatever kind of meat they specialize in, alive and happy. (Im sorry but if I did eat meat, I wouldnt want to see a happy pig right before Im about to sit down and eat pork, that'd gross me out).

Am I just being overly sensitive about it? How do you feel about those issues?

Answer 1

When I see a billboard, I wouldn't say I get offended, probably more annoying than anything else.
I would think that using a mascot of an animal that you eat would be bad marketing, maybe I'm wrong(?). I think it's pretty stupid, but I guess you can't have a picture of a chicken hanging upside down bleeding from it's throat, right. I really hate the "beef-it's what's for dinner" ads too.

Answer 2

When you see a commercial/billboard/ advertisement with meat on it (raw or cooked), talking about how juicy and delicious it is, do you get offended?
No.
or feel slightly sickened?
No.

Also, when a place that sells mostly chicken, uses a chicken as their mascot, or a place that sells mostly pork or beef, uses a happy, smiling pig, or cow, does that offend you?
No.

I dont eat meat, and I find pictures of meat kind of gross, and it irritates me when people use a cartoon image of whatever kind of meat they specialize in, alive and happy. (Im sorry but if I did eat meat, I wouldnt want to see a happy pig right before Im about to sit down and eat pork, that'd gross me out).

Am I just being overly sensitive about it?
I would think so, but individuals make things interesting. We are all different.
How do you feel about those issues?
I have a way of not really letting things like that offend me. It would mean that I'd be mad every time I leave the house and I just don't have the time for that. I think it's much more fun spend my time laughing...
But to each his own.

Hope it helped.

Answer 3

That is how I started and then I just stopped eating meat one day. I used to LOVE meat and then I started thinking about what I was eating and got really really grossed out. I would go to a resturant and order the food I used to eat feeling hungry and wanting it and then when I got it I would stare at it for an hour put it in a box take it home and end up giving it to my boyfriend. It finally got to the point where I could not eat it anymore I was just so damn grossed out. My favorite food used to be steak and ribs. I never would touch meat though when I cook it (never raw). I would use a fork. I will admit that it sucks when I go out to eat there are not a lot of options, when I eat at home it is hard to cook non meat for me and meat for my boyfriend. I honestly sleep better at night though it makes me feel better about myslef knowing that I am not feating of the flesh of caged animals that do not have the oppurtunity to enjoy life. It breaks my heart. I take a lot of science classes and can't get over the concept of meat. I don't think I ever will.

Answer 4

I have two reactions to those billboards: the "juicy meat" stuff grosses me out, and the "happy cow"/etc. mascot stuff makes me roll my eyes. I mean, talk about stupid advertising tactics!

On the other hand, I don't think most people who eat meat give much thought to it. They're raised eating meat, most people they know eat meat -- it's a social norm. So it's probably NOT stupid advertising -- because the companies know that, for the most part, only the VT/VG folks (who already AREN'T going to be customers) are likely to think about the odd and problematic nature of such advertising.

I am, by the way, vegetarian. And no -- I don't think you're being overly sensitive. I think most people are just DEsensitized to this stuff. It SHOULD bother people...and if it doesn't bother you, I think that's a problem, ya know? Not the other way around.

Answer 5

When I see an advertisment I feel sickened not really offended.
When I see a place that mostly sells chicken and they use that as their mascott I think Are you serious. God knows that that chicken would be pi**ed off it it knew you were going to eat it. It wouldn't be happy and smiling. In a way I think it's sad and sick. Like you said I wouldn't want to see an image of a chicken before I was going to eat a chicken leg or whatever part. That's sick.

I personally don't think your being overly sensitive about this because I see it the way you do.

Answer 6

Those things don't offend me, most billboards about meat I just totally don't even look at after a glance or so.

I've always thought steak houses who use a cow as a mascot or anything similar was always in pretty poor taste. It doesn't offend me, but I've always thought it in pretty poor taste to pretend like the animal was happily wanting to be eaten.

I think things like these just further distance in people's minds the link between the steak in front of them, and the animal that died for it.

Answer 7

I'm not easily offended, what I've found to the smiling pig mascot stuff, it shows the stupidity of their advertising management. Yes pictures of meat are kinda gross, cause it all kinda looks like internal things (i.e. intestines, brains, etc) but over the last year and some months, I've gotten used to it.

Answer 8

I guess they just want the customers to see a happy, smiling, cartoon animal and think that the animals the store uses and sells were treated humanely...there's a chain in Chicago called "Moo & Oink" with a happy cow and pig as a logo, and all they sell is frozen, bulk meats.

Answer 9

i agree, it sickens me when i see pictures of meat, i wouldn't really say it offends me - i already know that they want vegetarians/vegans gone, and i want the same of them, so i don't expect them to consider my (our) feelings when putting pictures like that on billboards, or anywhere else, but it does disgust me that they could see that as food and some people actually look at it and get hungry - they see dinner, i see part of a corpse

the cartoons irritate me too - that one chicken place seems to acknowledge the fact that the animals don't want to be eaten, because it has two cows as is mascot saying 'eat more chicken' but it makes a jooke out of it, so, its still not good - anyway, no, you're not being overly sensitive - its completely natural to be disgusted by people viewing corpses as food (at least if they aren't starving - that's a little more acceptable =p )

Answer 10

It gets me a bit weak in the knees and causes me to turn away. I don't hate the people for eating the meat or even for creating the mascots though. It's a learned behavior to treat an animal as a less-than-human object (called speciesism to be exact) and I can't condemn a person for being who or what they are.