Animal activists hijack MLC campaign

11 February 1999

Animal activists hijack MLC campaign

By Johann Tasker

A TELEVISION advertising campaign for pork has lead to confusion for some viewers, despite being hailed a success by the Meat and Livestock Commission.

The £2.5 million campaign, paid for with farmers money, kicked off with peak-time commercials shown around episodes of Coronation Street and the Jerry Springer Show.

The adverts aim to encourage consumers to buy only pork products showing the new Quality Standard mark which guarantees the pigmeat is British.

But some viewers trying to obtain pork recipes from a British Meat internet address shown during the advert ended up on a website linked to the Animal Liberation Front (ALF).

Helen Walters, whose family are all involved in farming, said her pleasure at seeing the advert soon turned to anger when she found pictures of blood-splattered butchers.

“To my horror there were a lot of anti-meat pages obviously not intended to be there,” she said. “I would like to know how they got there and who is responsible for it.”

Instead of finding a “recipe for love” for British pork, Ms Walters found pictures of slaughtered animals, and propaganda claiming meat is a “recipe for BSE.”

The problem is that animal rights activists have registered an internet address similar to that used by the British Meat site in the hope of catching viewers who mistype the details.

The ploy appears to be working and has netted other viewers who have tried to access the British Meat recipes, claimed David Pearce, who administers the activists site.

“Hit-counts have been climbing sharply,” he said.

The MLC has known of the rogue site for some time but is having difficulty deciding whether anything can be done to close it down.

“There isnt really anything legally we can do about it,” said an MLC spokesman. “Its something that were having to live with.”