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

[theskyispink]

twitter.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1355862358728597507/photo/1

Take a drink - another drinks company goes ultra-woke.

I love Alpro chocolate, especially their high protein ones.

www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/304797893

@Justhadathought

Told DH not to put the ten chocolate oatly cartons back in the online trolley when he does his final bit of our online shop

Alpro soya do a good chocolate drink.

Yes that was in my selection! Snuck in with the dairy.

Been buying Oatly for years
Time to try out some of the alternatives mentioned here

what a load of ageist shite those ads are. Trying to come across as cool, but succeeding only at alienating anyone over the age of 14. No more Oatley in my trolley.

Oatly

That packaging doesn't look like it's recyclable. Now that's not very ethical...

@Chicchicchicchiclana

PMSL. My daughter messaged me this very day to say "do you still buy newspapers, it would be interesting to know for my journalism module" (she is at Uni doing an English based degree, not sure why she hasn't noticed we don't have physical newspapers in the house when she's here, but still).

My reply was "Not really darling, no. We used to read The Guardian but I don't even read it online any more. Nor The Observer. Sad, and I sort of miss them ... but they no longer speak to me".

@PixelatedLunchbox Right, the pronouns stuff doesn't even bother me really but the ageism does. And who wrote it and signed off on it anyway? A teenager? No, of course not, it was a dreaded boomer called Dave who barely knows what snapchat is.

The packaging claims to be recyclable. I still have a couple of cartons in the fridge although I won't be buying anymore.

I don't care at all about the pronoun stuff but I object strongly to the ageism.

Such ageism and bad manners.

I really don't understand a company that thinks it's a smart move to insult/make fun of/belittle the people who buy your product.

My grandmother was once teased by a shopkeeper, he did something silly like pulled his hand away as she was handing him her money and laughed at her. It was a small thing but maybe he got her on a bad day, and it wasn't something she would do to someone. She'd shopped there for years but she never went back to him again (and probably found a better alternative so didn't need to).

every.to/almanack/oatly-the-new-coke-821556

Cripes you learn something every day on here

Thanks Dexra

Thanks for that, Derxa. Now I'm even more glad that I think it tastes horrible!

On their Facebook page the main photo background has lots of slogans made into a collage of sorts. One of them is "we promise to be a good company." Maybe if they just self-identified as one it would solve their problems.

There's plenty of other plant milks available, not just oat milk, for people who don't want to drink cows milk for whatever reason. I haven't read derxa's link, but I seem to remember she's some kind of livestock farmer so may have a vested interest in encouraging people to consume animal products. Apologies if this is not the case.

@CloveCarnation

There's plenty of other plant milks available, not just oat milk, for people who don't want to drink cows milk for whatever reason. I haven't read derxa's link, but I seem to remember she's some kind of livestock farmer so may have a vested interest in encouraging people to consume animal products. Apologies if this is not the case.

Like Derxa as a farmer I do indeed have a vested interest in ensuring that companies like Oatly are not allowed to outright lie about farming and the dairy industry.

Although this particular advert has annoyed 'parents' Oatly have also been taking pot shots at the farming industry as part of this campaign using entirely false statistics to try and sell their product.

Are you suggesting that farming families shouldn't be allowed to have an opinion on companies that are openly trying to smear them?

Neither Derxa or I are dairy farmers (as far as I know?) so technically have no skin in the game. Indeed a member of my family is dairy intolerant so we do actually buy milk substitutes regularly.

@CaptainMyCaptain

The packaging claims to be recyclable. I still have a couple of cartons in the fridge although I won't be buying anymore.

I don't care at all about the pronoun stuff but I object strongly to the ageism.

To be honest, its been a long time since I bought any drink in a carton so I'm not up to speed with whether councils accept them now.

Pretty sure though that it's still more damaging than the reusable glass bottles provided by the milkman...

What @Scrowy said.
I'm a sheep farmer. I've got no vested interest in promoting milk.

@SophocIestheFox

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!

Exactly! I'm getting really sick of big corporations weighing in on every social issue like they are the moral guides in society. It's nauseating!

I keep thinking - you are not my friend, you are not my community, you couldn't care less about what's going on in my life - you are simply trying to sell me something.

So quit the patronising 'we understand you, we're one of you' bullsh!t. Stop telling us how to live our lives.

Thanks for that link derxa

My teenage dc are weirdly resistant to veganism, considering how wholeheartedly they've drunk the Kool-aid in other areas. It's actually me, the boring old middle-aged holder of the purse strings, who has been thinking about whether we should be reducing dairy and looking at alternatives. No Oatly for us!

@Derxa - thanks for your link at 13.07. Absolutely fascinating!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4150353-AIBU-to-think-that-Innocent-are-guilty-of-online-bullying
Here's another company being unpleasant.

Back to the farming thing. Farmers grow the stuff you eat and drink. That includes oats, rapeseed oil etc. Therefore I've probably got more in common with arable farmers than non farmers.
The thread is about nasty and untruthful marketing.

Thanks for the link derxa.

I think I'm going to go back to good old milk tbh. Now i know about the oil i feel a bit sick drinking oat milk