About one million commuters ride Toronto’s subway each day, so it’s a safe bet a few of them are now vegetarians thanks to provocative ads posted inside the subway cars last fall and this winter.
The ads, sponsored by the Toronto Vegetarian Association, included an image of a puppy and a piglet with the tagline — “Why love one but eat the other?”
The other images in the public awareness campaign featured the same question with photos of a Labrador retriever and a calf, and a kitten and a chick.
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Toronto Vegetarian Association executive director David Alexander said the organization isn’t pressuring Canadians to eat chickpeas instead of chicken. Rather, the ads were designed to initiate a dialogue.
“It was a good campaign. It was something that got (people) thinking about these issues. It didn’t necessarily convert them, but it started a conversation,” he said.
Alexander said the ads also encouraged consumers to question why they eat what they eat.
“Consider what choosing a steak means for a cow or choosing bacon means for a pig.”
Lisa Kramer, a University of Toronto finance professor who is a vegan and one of the driving forces behind the campaign, agreed that the ads were designed to provoke thought about food choices.
Furthermore, every vegetarian and vegan in Canada isn’t on a crusade to terminate the consumption of meat, she said.
“It’s difficult to talk about any large group with a single set of descriptors,” she said. “Every individual vegetarian has their own reason for not eating meat.”
She said it would be a positive outcome if a number of Torontonians now eat humanely raised livestock because of the ads.
“Personally I’m a vegan and I would like it if more people chose not to eat animals. But I think any step people take towards reducing animal suffering is a step towards progress. I’m not going to judge people for doing less than I’ve decided to do. I wasn’t born pristine. I used to eat meat myself.”
