Oatly takes out ad in The Guardian to mock 'desperately out of touch' parents about pronouns in email signatures

I mean the thing is that's a decades-long standing joke - it's enough of a "type" that everyone recognises the sitcom dad going round turning the thermostat down (and recognising my dad in myself when i started doing it! )

Yes, my DM was the light offer/ door shutter in my 60s childhood. (No central heating, no thermostat). The main determinant is almost certainly 'who pays the bills'.

I don’t know what these companies are thinking, who signs this stuff off?!

Oatly is just thin gruel that has been rebranded

They forget that most of us boomers were brought up 'without'. We didn't come from privilege, we just took the opportunities as they presented themselves. We were fortunate in that there was an shortage of workers and that the structure was such that we could climb the ladder to better pay and better jobs, regardless of education. Whereas now, everyone needs a degree and the left behinds are now at greater disadvantage than they were in the age of the boomer

We stopped buying oatly last year when they sold out a chunk of their company to a corporation who not only also partially own one of the biggest companies whose sole purpose is deforestation in the Amazon but their CEO was also a major financial supporter of trump.

There was a big deal about it at the time but I’m shocked by how many people seemed to forget.
I don’t care how good their products are, there are always alternatives, I will not support their underlying messages.

I second oat milk from Aldi.
What a load of patronising crap.

We also plan to boycott Oatly.
We are Guardian readers and don't appreciate being lectured at about wokeness.
We pay for the stuff not our teenagers! Oatly needs to decide who their target audience is. I think they will have pissed off a bunch of their customers with their sanctimoniousness.

Teenagers, those well-known proponents of avoiding online shopping and drinking non-dairy milk products.

Oat milk is very easily made in a blender and a billion times cheaper. I can't imagine what kind of idiots would come up with this ad, given who is actually buying this overpriced product. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!

Meh. This is squarely aimed at me if I had a teenager (I actually have a toddler... as do most of my peer group friends) and I'm not offended. It's quite amusing. I know full well I'm the 'older' demographic now, that teens are massively different from when I was young, and have very different lives and concerns. It doubtless would be better for the environment and my health if I drank oat milk, but it's revolting so I'm not going to.

We all talk about how privileged boomers are and how they can't possibly understand the real world - this is just the next stage of the perennial misunderstood youth.

helps me find companies that actually do align with the relevant ethical values that I’m looking for: no palm oil in my peanut butter, fair trade in my coffee and sugar, no sweatshops in my clothing, no deforestation in my milk substitutes etc. Whether a beverage producer endorses my position on pronouns is utterly irrelevant

Yes - these are all the things I care about too. We can be dinosaurs together.

And there's this

How patronising! As a former English language teacher I can say that teenagers who know what pronouns are,are as rare as rocking horse shit - until now when they are all experts in wokeness.

Ooh thanks for the Oato recommendation - this has actually spurred me to start getting a milk delivery sorted out, we get through quite a lot of dairy & oat milk in this house and I like the idea of glass bottles!

That’s it - I’m cancelling my 15 year olds Guardian subscription!

What I’m finding very helpful about companies who mindlessly virtue signal is that it helps clue me in that they may not have anything substantive going on in terms of their corporate social responsibility, and they’re (consciously or not) deflecting from that.

With the controversies highlighted upthread, Oatly seem to be firmly in this camp.

It helps me find companies that actually do align with the relevant ethical values that I’m looking for: no palm oil in my peanut butter, fair trade in my coffee and sugar, no sweatshops in my clothing, no deforestation in my milk substitutes etc. Whether a beverage producer endorses my position on pronouns is utterly irrelevant. They can console themselves that I’m a hopeless dinosaur with no social conscience if they like, it’s their bottom line that will suffer when they find out they’re wrong!

What is actually happening in the world that drinks companies feel they are in a position to 'educate' the masses on social issues. It's utterly baffling to me that they feel in a particular position to do this. I get the whole 'trying to sell a lifestyle/on brand mesaging' thing, but recently it's seemed to just go way beyond that.

Lightbulb moment

GC drinks company? We could print GC slogans and extracts from the Equalities Act on every carton?

Does anyone know of an altenative for their “creme fraiche”? I will buy Elmea now i stead of their cream.

Biting the hand that feeds you, Oatly.

I, (a 47 year old woman) control the shopping in my household, not my teens.
Looks like my regular order of Oatly is permanently off the shopping list now. Will try the Lidl one instwad.

I think it was a perfect partnership for the Guardian. Both as annoying as heck.

@PotholeParadies - just so - my son is the recycling meister in this house but I & my husband both do it - we are not twits and despite being in my ( ahem - let's just say 50s) I find some of those Oatly things a bit patronising . Isn't ageism meant to be a thing you can't do. ? Although my son did say the other evening he thinks ageism is one of the last things a lot of people worry about. ( Not him because he was the one who pointed it out - - just legally and to do with employment and - well shit like that , and ....)

DDs can't criticise my green credentials- they are the ones wanting the heating turned up and leaving all the lights on. I go round turning all the lights off and turning the thermostat down

If you search Oatly Guardian on twitter, the impressions are pretty unfavourable!