My latest article in ET Brand Equity is a deep dive and a counter to the controversy stirred by the Bloomberg article around the apparent death of plant-based meat industry.
Can controversy actually create community? Ask the “plant meat” industry
An excerpt:
A click-baity headline from a Bloomberg article from mid-January sparked off a raging controversy in the plant-based meat industry.
“Fake Meat Was Supposed to Save the World. It Became Just Another Fad- Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods wanted to upend the world’s $1 trillion meat industry. But plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop”- Bloomberg
It triggered conspiracy theories, fake news, social media activism (especially on Linkedin), controversial reports, counter arguments, allegations, outrage and drama. In short, it had all the makings of a blockbuster thriller or a typical soap opera.
But the question is whether this controversy turned out to be a boon or a bane for the plant meat industry?
Before we answer that, let’s first understand why the Bloomberg feature stirred up such a passionate controversy. Written by a credible journalist in a well-known publication with facts that are not unfair, the article came across as one-sided and incomplete. It made a sweeping, potentially damaging declaration about a sunrise industry, without reporting on every aspect and all sides of the argument.
- The article ended up sounding like the stereotypical critical mother-in-law
- It predicted the future of the entire industry on the basis of only 2 brands
- The article gives undue weightage to the WHAT of plant-based meats while utterly overlooking their WHY
- It interpreted declining sales as ‘novelty wearing off’
- The article equates industry survival with brand survival
- It used US-specific meat market facts to build a story that came off as global
- It forgets that everything is relative. There cannot be any absolutes.
NO CONTROVERSY IS BAD CONTROVERSY, SO LONG AS IT BUILDS COMMUNITY!
Ever since Deena Shankar, the journalist who authored the article, first shared it on her Linkedin page, that single post garnered close to 900 reactions, 411 comments, 63 reposts (till the time of writing this article).
You can now multiply and extrapolate the total engagement and impressions the article must have generated through that original post alone. Add in the snowball effect from posts of everyone who shared their POV on their own pages and you will understand the impact of that article.
Read the entire article here to understand if this controversy was actually a boon or a bane for our tight-knit plant-based community.
I would love to hear your POV on this controversy and this article.
Question to think about : 💡
If you could rally around the entire vegan community over one single point, what might that point be? A point that not only actively brings the community together but is also aligned with your vegan brand‘s message?
Should you want to talk, I am just an email away. You know that, right?