To think that the current Vegetarian Society ad on mumsnet is smug and unnecessary?

[scarletsalt]

was growing mumsnet earlier and saw an advert for the vegetarian society, which shows a girl on a horse with the caption 'what's for tea?' underneath and then something about horse free vegetarian food.

AIBU to wish these people would just fuck off? I have no issue with people choosing a vegetarian/vegan/fruitarian or whatever diet for themselves and their families. I don't wish to have their choices rammed down my throat.

And it's not like a vegetarian diet is risk free either when you think of all the genetically modified stuff out there. Maybe the Carnivores Society could put out an advert with a three headed child asking 'what's for tea?'

I am a vegetarian - who is not smug as I have NEVER tried to convert anyone or give them information about the meat industry - but I find this advert quite funny. There have been loads of jokes about the horse meat scandal on facebook so why shouldn't the vegetarian society also use a lighthearted way of encouraging people to consider vegetarianism? I think some people are taking this advert too seriously. BTW I have had many people poke fun at me for being vegetarian and I don't complain as it is just th way things are.

Yabu considering all the McDonalds advertising you see on here. So it's ok to advertise meat products but not veggie.

I just saw the cute horse and didn't read the ad! I'm veggie (non squemish and has eaten horse and many other 'cute 'n fluffy animals' in my time) and find all the jokes quite amusing. Maybe its payback for all the 'but whhhhhhyyyyy don't you eat meat' 'oh here, a bacon sandwich (wafts smell over) doncha just waaaant it?' 'Bacon crisps - oh. That's surely not vegetarian then, is it?' 'You're pale, obviously anaemic then' 'your baby will be sickly if you don't eat meat when pregnant', 'its onlt fish/chicken/beef stock so you can eat it' 'vegetarians are always miserable' etc etc etc

Moomins you are SO right. I was just thinking of all the jibes I have had over the last 25 years. I was out for a meal last week and off they went. . .

I just said' If you think DP and I haven't heard all this before you are sadly mistaken. As we never criticise your food choices, I think that's enough, don't you?' With a smile and a poke in the ribs but it so, so tedious.

Humourless lesbian feminist vegetarian here, and one who does eat Quorn sometimes cos it is quick and I am busy, just like everyone else.

So I am a hypocrite, bite me. At least, I am locally sourced and you can check my provenance.

(Though the drugs history might put you off, or get you high, as might the issue of the fat-to-flesh ratio!)

YABU. And ridiculous, frankly.

As someone pointed out up thread (sorry, didn't catch who!), it's a joke in the vein of many made by independent butchers shops. This is not a vegetarian exclusive.

Sounds like you have a bit of a chip on your shoulder about vegetarianism, which is just hugely silly of you.

I'm a vegetarian and I'm not smug either.

I have no problem with sitting at table with people eating rare steak. It's their choice as not eating it is mine.

I'd never try and convert anyone and I only ever mention it if someone offers me a taste of their food and pushes it once I've said "no, I'm ok thanks".

I quite often find people ask a lot of questions - it seems to attract the same level of interest/surprise as being left handed. A left handed veggie is quite a curiosity indeed!

Maybe they whole thing has been a ploy by vegetarians. I think they've been horse-napping animals from racecourses and the New Forest, smashing their heads in with a hammer, chopping them up, then lobbing chunks of meat through pie factory windows. Typical vegetarians.

beyondthelimitsofacceptability, what makes you say vegetarians have a restricted diet? I've been veggie too long to bother arguing with non-veggies but I know meat eaters who don't eat half the variety I do. I brought home-made veggie paella into work yesterday and a colleague commented that it smelled lovely and asked what the "sticky up bits" were. When I told her it was fennel, she said, "I don't think I've ever eaten fennel." Two others asked for the recipe (can't take the credit, though, it was Ottolenghi's!).

To whoever asked why vegetarians eat all the imitation meat products - actually, a lot of us don't. A 'beef' burger has no appeal for me whatsoever. Obviously some veggies do eat them (my daughter likes the Linda McCartney sausages, for some reason) but a lot of the marketing is aimed at people who are semi-vegetarian, ie still eat meat sometimes but are cutting down for health or cost reasons. I much prefer my vegetarian meals to look and taste like vegetarian meals.

I agree with most of what you say, exexpat except that there is no such thing as a semi-vegetarian. Whether you eat meat occasionally or three times a day, you are a meat eater. And don't get me started on "vegetarians" who eat fish!

Meh.

I found it funny.

I actually thought it was unattractively smug.

I'm a reformed vegetarian, btw.

Reformed vegetarian, reformed vegetarian, no, still doesn't makes sense!

I think "smug" is an overused word now.

I have never been a vegetarian, have eaten beef ready meals and Ikea meatballs and still found it funny. [shrug] Even if I hadn't found it funny it would have been unfunny, not smug.

Companies/organisations always leap on the misfortunes of their rivals.

I suspect there would be a similar vein ad if they'd found pony in a Linda McCartney shepherds pie (which they wouldn't I'm sure)!

No, those only contain real shepherd.

reminds me of this

The horsemeat scandal made my French friend very happy, she laughed a lot at our expense, and then promptly went out a bought a 'beef' lasagna, despite the fact that she's supposed to be a vegetarian, I think she was making a point, I don't understand what that point is yet.

p.s. go vegan heavenlyveganbaking.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/vegan-gingerbread-men-well-sheep-actually/

YANBU. Agree mocking people in this way infantile and very sneering in that horrible self-righteous way that vegetarians often had. I am practically a vegetarian myself, and love vegetarian food. But find the smugness awful.

Actually, scientifically speaking, its only since we cultivated land as agrarians that we have taken so much of the habitat of animals. As hunter-gatherers we lived much more in harmony with the animal and plant kingdom.