Reaching out to conservative folks who aren't interested in helping animals

May 26, 2006

Animal suffering is the most important reason to go veg, in my opinion. It’s the first argument I use with people. However, it is not the last—we all know people who just don’t care, or who refuse to watch the videos, or simply cannot and will not change their diet for the animals.

I think the McDougall program is the absolute best way to reach people who won’t hear the compassion message. I have been teaching McDougall cooking classes for two years now, and I have seen some amazing things happen to people who, before the program, would rather die than eat a veggie meal (literally—they would rather destroy their health and have a heart attack than eat some lentils).

The McDougall Program is a great form of Animal Rights Advocacy, even though it was not created to be and is not marketed as such.

www.DrMcDougall.com

Dr. McDougall and his wife, Mary, are in their early 60’s. They are warm, funny, and sincere. Which means people like my Aunt Linda can relate to them. Aunt Linda has no interest in what I have to say about animal rights, but she has a lot of respect for a doctor in a white coat who is a great public speaker.

McDougall patients receive: McDougall lectures, tons of great food every day, medical attention, exercise classes, talks on psychology (why unhealthy food can be so addictive and what you can do about it) and nutrition, and one-on-one meetings with the McDougall’s. At the beginning of the 10 days the patients are grumpy, tired, and afraid of the new food. They’re popping every prescription pill ever invented. They take a looooong time to walk from the classroom to the lunch room, and many of them can barely lift the water pitcher on the table due to arthritis, MS, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, etc.

By the time they graduate I barely recognize them. Wedding rings are lost during every program, due to weight loss. Prescription pills (and the horrid side effects) are tossed in the garbage. Pounds and inches are gone. Patients jog to the lunch room and proudly show off how much they can lift and carry. They become vibrant, excited, happy, and fun to be around. People who passionately hated cabbage or beans are now ooohing and ahhhing over full plates of vegetables, beans and grains. Day 1: They hate me. Day 10: I’m their new best friend. It’s overwhelming.

The McDougall program is 100% vegan. So if you’re worried about your parents’ health, and you want them to live longer, and you send them to McDougall…not only will they get their life back, but they’ll become vegans! (Don’t tell them that before the program, they’ll never believe you). The icing on the cake: Even though Dr. McDougall is all about health and only health, he welcomes the animal rights message into his program. He lets Chef Colleen and I talk about slaughterhouses and factory farms and even hand out PETA literature and Why Vegans. I think the patients are more open to the animal message by the time we give it, perhaps because they’ve started to feel better than they have in ages.

If you have folks in your life who don’t care about animals, but do care about their weight and heart and blood work, please encourage them to attend the McDougall Program. Your family and friends will benefit, and so will the animals. When a 20-year-old punk approaches me about vegetarianism, I send them to PETA2. When a 56-year-old, overweight banker approaches me about eating healthy, I send them to Dr. McDougall and I just love the results.

In case you’re wondering….No, I don’t work on commission and no, I won’t get any kick-backs for sending new folks to the program. J I will benefit by seeing people feel better and knowing that many animals will be saved from becoming dinner.

Alex

p.s.

We’ve all explained the benefits of a veg diet to meat-eaters, but often with little success. I don’t know about you, but I just can’t explain all the research in a convincing way. Dr. McDougall is amazingly gifted in that area—the guy is brilliant, and reads every study ever published. For example:

Remember the recent study and ad campaign saying that “research shows eggs don’t increase cholesterol?” Dr. McDougall picks that study apart. Turns out the “researchers” first fed the test subjects heavy meals packed with cholesterol—bacon, steak, cheese. After testing their blood, they fed the subjects an egg or two, and tested the blood again. Of course the cholesterol didn’t rise—their blood vessels were already packed with cholesterol! But that little detail was left out of the egg industry’s marketing campaign.

Many dentists tell their patients who are suffering from halitosis that bad breath is caused by sulfur. What they don’t say is that animal foods are full of sulfur, so a simple diet change could save them from the embarrassment of bad breath and body odor. He then describes just how sulfur works and how it causes bad breath.

I’m doing my best to paraphrase Dr. McDougall, but please know he does this much better than I do. J These are just a couple of examples that show why his patients leave the program convinced and committed, no matter how skeptical they were before.

May 26, 2006

I think this is an excellent example of how important it is to know our audience before we shape our message (for example, PETA2 vs McDougall). In today's consumer society, marketing has a negative connotation at times because it's all about consuming material goods. But when it comes to selling people on all the great reasons to eat a veg diet, then we need to take a page out of the marketer's handbook.

I think that is one of the reasons that I like tabling - to create a visual display that will literally get people to stop in their tracks and learn more about factory farming, and hopefully encourage them to come closer and pick up some information. We typically have a mixture designed to persuade people to go veg from an ethical/factory farming perspective as well as a health/nutrition perspective. And, for the people who are too shy, we usually have volunteers leafleting in front of the booth passing out info too.

We do have our big marketing ploy at work, too: "Free Membership Today" .. we just don't tell them it's free everyday. If you haven't signed up for your free membership to Bay Area Vegetarians, sign up today at:

http://BayAreaVeg.org/join.htm :-)

If you're tabling this summer, please take pics of your set-up and share with the rest of us what you did, how it worked for you, and whether you'd do anything differently next time

Cheers,

Tammy

Bay Area Vegetarianswww.BayAreaVeg.org