What we need is a little truth in advertising

By Jessica Domel

I pride myself in not being the type of person who becomes wrapped up in some of the drama that comes with being actively involved on social media outlets on a daily basis, but last week I found myself entranced with a series of posts on Twitter regarding an advertising campaign that essentially called farmers who use antibiotics lazy.

A restaurant chain launched the campaign to promote its antibiotic free chicken. The premise is that farmers who don’t give antibiotics to their animals work harder than those who do. In the process, they called conventional farmers lazy, and that went over like a lead balloon.

Respected blogger Dairy Carrie brought the campaign to the social media sphere with her post, responding factually to the company’s criticisms.

The response from the agricultural community and consumers on Twitter has been amazing. In fact, it prompted an apology from the company, who later deleted a Twitter account they set up for the new campaign.

I don’t trust companies who feel like they need to use fear to demonize conventional agriculture and sell a more expensive product.

If your product is good enough on its own, why do you need to scare customers into buying it?

Just a little food for thought.