For the New Year, many people want to change something in their lives and set themselves new goals. In addition to sport and diets, this increasingly includes giving up animal food and eating meat-free. The trend even has its own name: With the “Veganuary” at least the whole of January should be spent vegan.
Anyone who entered an Edeka branch with these good intentions had to make a frightening discovery in the store. Where normally only groceries and household goods can be found, the Edeka Henningsdorf branch in Berlin came up with a very special eye-catcher: A young bull calf was enthroned there, stuffed on a mountain of liver sausage jars. To make the animal even more human, Edeka even gave it a name: a chain with the inscription “Anton” hung around its neck.
However, this staging was not well received by customers. Several people shared photos of the dead animal on Instagram and Twitter and wrote, among other things, that “animal exploitation was in bad taste”. Other users agreed: “Well, I would have found that horrible even when I ate meat myself,” replied one user, while another wrote: “Well, I expect something like that in the Natural History Museum (or I expect it). But that’s creepy.”
But others were also able to see positive effects and think the campaign is good, “since children often seem to believe that sausage comes off the shelf. Connecting an animal to consumption can raise awareness.” It is unclear what the store had in mind with the campaign. At least vegan customers should no longer have a shock experience: After many complaints were received by the branch, the bull calf Anton has now been removed from the shop.
