PETA Urges ASAI to Ban Misleading Irish Dairy Ad Campaign

For Immediate Release:
9 November 2017

Contact:
Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

PETA URGES ASAI TO BAN MISLEADING IRISH DAIRY AD CAMPAIGN

Group Submits Official Complaint Against Deceitful Ad Campaign by National Dairy Council

Dublin – Today, PETA fired off a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) against the National Dairy Council’s “Irish Dairy – the Complete Natural” campaign, which contains apparent breaches of the ASAI Code of Standards for Advertising and Marketing Communications in Ireland.

The adverts used in the campaign have been designed to mislead consumers by presenting cows’ milk as “plant-based”, a term widely accepted to mean “made from plants”, as in the case of milks made from almonds, soya, or rice. One depicts a woman drinking a glass of cows’ milk, alongside the tagline “Looking for a Completely Natural, Plant-Based Milk? Open Your Fridge.”

In the complaint, PETA writes, “Milk squeezed out of a cow is no more plant-based than is flesh cut from her body. Dairy milk is taken directly from an animal, whereas plant-based milks are made directly from plants. It is wrong for the National Dairy Council to attempt to capitalise on the booming popularity of plant-based milks with this misleading and false claim.”

“This ad campaign represents the desperate last gasps of an industry in trouble,” says PETA Director of Vegan Corporate Projects Dawn Carr. “More and more people are turning to delicious, cruelty-free plant-based milks as they learn about the sad lives of cows on dairy farms and the health risks associated with drinking milk intended for another species.”

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way” – notes that the dairy industry breeds cows to produce far more milk than nature intended, commonly resulting in painful mastitis in their overgrown udders. When their bodies give out after a few years spent in an unrelenting cycle of artificial insemination, gestation, and giving birth to calves who are torn away from them, they’re sent to slaughter to be turned into cheap meat. In addition to supporting the devastating cruelty inherent in dairy production, people who consume cows’ milk have an increased risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, among other ailments.

PETA’s complaint to the ASAI is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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