Belgian plant milk producer Alpro have upset many in the vegan community by promoting animal products as part of a healthy diet.
In a tweet the company state that a “healthy diet consists of 2/3 of plant based food and 1/3 of animal based” – a claim that has not gone down at all well with their large vegan consumer base, who know that a healthy diet actually consists of entirely plant based food.
It’s perhaps unsurprising that Alpro are now pushing animal products, considering that the company were taken over just three months ago by the dairy multinational Danone.
To make matters worse, many vegans have accused Alpro of responding to the online criticism in a “rude”, “patronising” and “arrogant” manner, which has only further angered some already disappointed and annoyed customers:
Twitter users have even started using the hashtag #BoycottAlpro to express their displeasure with the company, threatening an online PR disaster for the brand and showing how crucial it is for businesses to have an effective social media marketing team in place.
For a schooling in brilliant social media marketing, Alpro should take a look at their Swedish competitor Oatly, whose response to the situation is perfect:
It will be interesting to see if and how Alpro are able to manage a marketing and PR disaster that’s entirely of their own making.
If you’re a vegan or ethical business and interested in boosting your brand online, contact The Vegan Punk today for a free digital marketing consultation.
I think it is telling that Oatly choose to refer to a “cool” diet rather than a “healthy” one. It would seem that they, too, are unwilling to endorse a wholly plant based diet. Clever marketing indeed; it fooled you.
What was I “fooled” about, exactly? I said that Oatly’s response was “brilliant social media marketing” – which it was. Endorsing any diet is risky for a food producer, but at least Oatly, unlike Alpro, do not promote animal products – and are not owned by a dairy company.
You are a fool because Oatly have duped you into being their spokesman. Their tweet is disingenuous. They no more endorse an entirely plant based diet than Alpro does. At least Danone are honest about it. The fact that Oatly have slickly exploited a competitor’s misstep with sleight of hand is no cause for celebration. Sneakily swapping out ‘healthy’ for ‘cool’ is not “brilliant social media marketing”. It is cynical, dishonest and weasely.
You don’t happen to work for Alpro, do you? 😀
Ha! No. Just inherently skeptical when it comes to Big Business. (Y)
And look at all the hard-of-thinking voting down my comments. Open your eyes, dupes!
Hey Pete,
I’m not voting anything up or down – but on what do you base the statement that Oatly doesn’t endorse / support an entirely plant-based diet, either?
In any case, you may question whether their response is ethically ‘up there’ but 1) they are a business seeking business and 2) in lines of PR, at least they seem to know what they’re doing – which is the point of contrast with Alpro here, I believe.
Oh no why did Alpro sell out to a dairy company! That’s awful. Not using them anymore.
Big Business? I guess you don’t have a clue which one of them is billion times bigger business than the other?
Keep away from her doctor!
Oatly milks are not vegan apparently. They add their vitamin D from Sheep wool.
Not for the last 6 years they haven’t: http://www.veggies.org.uk/about/ethical-green/product-info/milk/#oatly
Oatley tastes lovely, full of junk though.