Celebrities become meat in sandwich

The Sydney Morning Herald | Entertainment | People

It's kind of ironic. I've been indignant on occasion at hearing an actor called ignorant when speaking out for the animals. Surely not all actors are up on every subject, but quite a few are educated and effective activists in their own right. Regrettably, it's now time to point up the ignorance of actor Sam Neill (whom you may remember from carnivore-fest Jurassic Park):

Neill has taken part in his first advertising campaign - to promote red meat - as part of a deal with Meat and Livestock Australia.

In the big-budget advertisement, which is due to appear on Australian television screens for the first time tonight, Neill uses the slogan "Red meat, we were meant to eat it".

"Lean meat three or four times a week is still an essential part of the diet of the most highly developed species on the planet," he says in the ad, part of a five-week campaign.

We're "meant" to eat it? If anything, our teeth and other anatomical structures suggest nothing of the sort. Those carnivores with the needle-sharp teeth in that big CGI-fest you starred in were meant to eat meat. We're merely adaptive enough to survive on meat, being wily omnivores...

On top of which, the first meat any doctor has the sense to recommend people cut out of their diet is red meat. So where's the scientific basis for Mr. Neill's claim on behalf of Australia's meat industry? Absurd. I'm amazed they found a celebrity willing to go out on a limb like this, but it shows their desperation to fight the growing trend away from red meat, so I suppose it's a good sign, if nothing else.

Categories: meat | advertising