What if your publicist offered speaking training and therapy before and after a debate with Piers Morgan?

It feels weird to call myself a publicist again. I distinctly remember driving home one day in my early 30s and telling myself, “I don’t want to be a publicist when I’m 40.” Forty seemed officially old, and I didn’t think it was cool to be at social parties and hustling at events to get clients media interviews at that age.

I’m now officially over 40 and still feel like I’ve got a lot to do and experience on this planet. When I closed my public relations agency, Conscious Public Relations Inc., in 2018, I thought I’d never look back, but when I went vegan, that changed everything.

In 2020, I sought to continue my mission of making the world a better place by copywriting for vegan companies, which has now turned into a suite of services, including publicity campaigns and services for authors.

Although my campaigns are not as intensive as they used to be (and likely never will be), I’ve realized that vegan publicists have a really important role not just in the marketing of vegan organizations (for- and non-profit), but in storytelling, communications, and undoing the misinformation put out by the animal ag industry for decades that’s still in the average person’s consciousness.

Here are my top 3 reasons the world needs more vegan publicists:

 

1. Vegan publicists aren’t afraid to put their values out there.

Although Conscious PR Inc. wasn’t the first public relations agency to share good values, my impact-driven agency was the fourth PR firm (of still a handful) to earn B Corporation certification in Canada. Today, most marketing agencies not only don’t have a niche, but they also don’t put their values out there.

I get that. It’s hard. How do we encapsulate the values of all our employees and contractors? How can we say we all believe in the same thing? The smart people say if you don’t stand for anything, you’ll fall for everything. All public relations start from the inside of a company. That goes for PR agencies too.

This is what’ll happen when an agency doesn’t know its values, takes on a client that either greenwashes or bluewashes or outright isn’t ethical, and then gets in shit for whatever product or campaign they put out on that company’s behalf.

Marketing agencies and marketers alike need to take a stand and refuse to work for unethical companies. Time and time again top PR agencies like Edelman agree to take on some of the worst polluters like Shell and pay content creators to talk about gas rewards programs. It’s bullsh*t and consumers see right through it.

In the vegan world, agencies are refusing to use breathing-impaired-breeds (BIBs) of dogs in ads, which is a tiny step closer to not using animals in media (check out this episode of Just So You Know for more on that).

We all make mistakes as publicists and a lot of our work depends on timing and what stories have been published recently, but if you’re looking for a publicist who isn’t afraid to put their values out there, find one who’s out as a vegan. We are definitely a different (but good) breed of people. 🙂

Aside from myself, there’s Vikki Lenola (Canada), Kezia Jauron & Gary Smith (US), Jennifer Estevez (US), Sacha Cohen at Grassfed Media (US), tykio (US), Karin Ridgers (UK), Verity Payne (UK), Caroline Burgess-Pike, (UK), Petra Smith (UK), Edward Hopkins (UK), Hayley Peters (UK), Sarah Kauter at VerriBerri Digital (UK) Alice Grahame (UK), and Paula Gonzalez Carracedo (Spain).

 

2. Vegan publicists “get” veganism.

It’s happening slower than I’d like, but in the same way you would hire a consultant or employee who specializes in working with a certain underserved demographic (i.e. women, people of colour, people with disabilities, people on the LGBTQIA2S+ spectrum, etc.), companies that are intentionally animal-free should hire employees or professionals who identify as plant-based or vegan.

Especially if you’re hiring for a marketing role, it makes a lot more sense to hire a vegan professional to market a vegan product, service, or company because they are part of the target demographic. (Yes, I realize vegan products/service are for everyone, not just vegans.)

It doesn’t have to happen, but if you hire a non-vegan, they’ll have to do research on why people eat plant-based diets, go vegan, or prefer products without animal ingredients (e.g. people with allergies).

The more time that person spends on research, the more time you’re spending for them to learn vs. just getting down to developing a marketing campaign.

While my current relationships are primarily with vegan-friendly media and media in Vancouver, BC, consider hiring a publicist who has a diverse set of relationships, including both mainstream and vegan-friendly media.

When you hire a vegan publicist or marketer, you can skip the audience research part (unless you’re going outside the vegan sphere) and work with a professional who gets veganism.

 

3. Removing bias from news reporting and digital content

This is the biggie. Every day, I watch the local news and there are often either chefs or food professionals who appear on the show with meat/dairy/seafood/eggs. Plant-based foods are always a side. Or there are animals or animal products shown as part of the news, and the anchors chime in to mention their favourite animal-based foods.

I won’t say there’s a way to be 100% unbiased in a media report (it’s human nature—even AI carries bias because the internet is its source of information), but whenever a news anchor gives an opinion, they’re inserting their own bias into an otherwise intentionally objective story.

Erin Ireland did a TEDx talk years ago (below) about the bias that’s inherent in food media, but I’d argue it’s in all media, because if 96% or so of the world eats animals, you can bet that’s going to be considered “normal” in media. I think all the shows on the Food Network all use animal products.

Earlier this year, Australian Lamb released a god-awfully long 3-minute commercial to promote lamb, which made it on my local news. “I love lamb curry,” said Sonia Sunger, reporter for Global BC. That’s an example of a news person being biased.

I felt like I did my small part when the same morning show ended with the story of an adult pig who had escaped from its farm. It was found and brought home. “Why are its ears like that?” asked Sunger on-air. I knew that pigs typically have their ears notched when they’re on a farm, but I didn’t know why. So the following Monday, I did my research and sent her this tweet:

Sandra Nomoto (she/her) @SandraNomoto Mar 11</p>
<p>@SoniaSunger Last week when there was a pig with notched ears shown on-air, you asked why that was.<br />
Ear-notching identifies a pig's litter and which of the litter it is. It's like a giving a pig a unique ID #.<br />
Just one of the many painful & horrible parts of farming & why I'm #vegan!</p>
<p>Sonia Sunger @SoniaSunger: Thanks for letting me know...I had no idea!

Most news anchors, podcast or radio hosts, or content creators don’t know they’re putting out bias. (Unless the media outlet or content creator is intentionally advertising an animal product.)

Hiring a vegan publicist who chooses not to eat animal products reduces your chances of putting out biased releases and pitches, if that’s something you want to avoid.

Hiring a Black publicist to market a collection of African-inspired apparel might cut down the risk of another publicist saying or putting out something inappropriate. I would think the first thing that publicist would ask is, who designed this collection? Did they collaborate with a group of people who gave their consent to use the pieces, traditional/cultural styles, colours, or patterns? Are portions of the collection going back to support Black communities?

While there aren’t as many vegan content creators as conventional ones, there are some very influential vegan ones with followers/views in the millions. Marketing a vegan product to them to reach vegans can yield some fantastic results while still maintaining your values as a company. You won’t get applause or awards for working with vegan content creators, but if values are important to your company, this is a great way to go.

Having a non-vegan influencer share about your vegan product/service and then wear a down or leather jacket or eat a steak, beef burger, or pork hot dog in the next post hits differently.

Even if you don’t really care who you hire to do your marketing or publicity, you can’t argue that our world is on fire. Climate change and misinformation are genuine issues, youth are concerned about their futures and who they buy from, and even though vegan companies might not be doing as well as they have in the past, the number of vegan consumers is expected to rise.

Hiring a publicist or marketer who lives a lifestyle based on combatting these problems—or who isn’t afraid to share their values as part of their work—shows that you care as a company about who you invest in, and that you want to do your part too.

 

Need to take publicity or media outreach off your plate so you can focus on other aspects of your business? Read more about my services here and contact me if you’re ready to begin!

 

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