I have been very occupied with recent Tennessee political events so I have not had to focus on blogging or what I eat really. I actually dropped a lot of weight quickly, not purposely, because my nerves have kept me from having an appetite, but it’s returned! And I am still purposely losing weight but just not trying to lose a pound a day. I live in Knoxville, TN and one of the “Tennessee Three” is actually my representative, Gloria Johnson. She didn’t get expelled thankfully. Her house is literally a two or three minute drive from me and last year I requested a yard sign from her campaign and since she lives so close to me, she was here putting it in my yard in 10 minutes! So I’d be lying if I didn’t say I feel kind of special that a person who is definitely going to be in history books has been in my yard, and I have an email exchange with her. LOL.
Even though I don’t really have the bandwidth to care about vegan cookery or vegan food shopping, I did run into a commercial targeted towards me. I saw where it was going right away, but I kept watching to be sure. I do think I stopped it about 5 seconds before it ended to tell Youtube to never show it to me again because it was just cringe. So it’s Aubrey Plaza in jeans and a flannel shirt and vest from what I recall talking about “wood milk.” It wasn’t funny, which is fine, but it was trying to be funny. Something about how all of it tastes like wood, but there was cherry, mahogany, oak, maple varieties. I left with the impression that I was specifically targeted because of my penchant for vegan cooking Youtubes, and I don’t understand why they think a consumer would like to be ridiculed? It sure didn’t make me want to go grab a gallon of cow milk at the grocery store! I don’t actually have a problem with the plant-based milks I use – they aren’t actually wood milk. That seemed to be the whole point of the video is to convince me plant-based milks taste bad and I’m an idiot for using them. I actually think it’s pretty common for people to not like the taste of cow’s milk. I’ve never been a huge fan of the stuff. It’s fine with cereal or rich desserts but other than that, it smells bad to me and has a weird aftertaste. If they wanted to convince vegan-leaning individuals to not choose plant-based milks, they really failed. If you already hated the taste of plant-based milks and loved the taste of cow’s milk and had no interest in being vegan, then aren’t you already purchasing cow’s milk? Seems like Aubrey Plaza has faced some backlash over it and turned the comments off on her Instagram featuring the commercial. I didn’t personally go check on that myself but that’s what I read. Aubrey probably got a pretty paycheck for it so whatever. Really don’t know what the ad execs were thinking though. You can read more about it here: https://news.yahoo.com/aubrey-plaza-unfortunate-face-milk-210700241.html.
I get the gross feeling this “real milk” BS is coinciding with this “real woman” BS. I am not offended that people drink cow’s milk. Most people around me that I respect and love aren’t vegan and I manage just fine knowing that. But I don’t understand why there are people trying to stoke cultural wars. Seriously, cruelty seems to be the point these days. Again, on a scale, this commercial barely registers but still the only point seems to be to ridicule people, not point out the virtues of cow’s milk or anything else.
Yes, such a good points you made here. I haven’t looked at the video you mentioned, but I can see how they were trying to be funny. And how the comedy most likely failed. Sadly, I think you’re right, cruelty is “in” right now. 🙁