A&W gets it wrong

This commercial makes me shout, along with a few others on TV right now.

I like the short, chubby guy that does the A&W ads. He's adorable. But boy did the corporation miss it with this last ad! He goes marching out into the street with a tray of burgers, encouraging people to try their beef, raised hormone and antibiotic free.

WELL WHO GIVES A RAT'S A$$?

What I want to know is HOW THE ANIMAL WAS RAISED and even more to the point HOW WELL DID IT DIE? I want to eat a cow that was raised happy, kept healthy and if that means it got antibiotics when it needed them, that's fine, and DIED HAPPY. THAT is what matters to me! THAT is what A&W ought to be bragging up, that they are making moves to the ethical keeping and slaughtering of their beef animals. Hormone and antibiotic free is just a small piece of the picture and to say it's a start is WRONG! At this point in time it is coming to the table too late. We are beyond this, we know better and corporations as big as A&W have no excuse in the world to not be doing better!

I also shout at those SuperStore (oh whatever chain it is) ads that talk to their pork raisers. Hey there pig people, how do you feel having your picture and name on the link sausages we sell in our store? Well gee golly, we feel pretty chuffed, a grand excuse to not have our gumboots and overalls on. The camera pans over bucolic scenes of dogs running and barking, children laughing, a family picnic set up. NOT ONE SINGLE SHOT OF A PIG ANYWHERE! They could be raising rhinoceroses for all we know. Those animals could be in advanced stages of death by misery and all we see is smiling people claiming to be pig farmers, but there isn't ONE SINGLE PIG anywhere in the pork commercial. IT makes me scream!

Or the egg farmer commercial, happy chicken guy up at the crack of dawn, roosters crow, the sun comes up. NO CHICKENS ANYWHERE IN SIGHT! Why? Because they are crammed into stinking cages row on row, to churn out eggs until their bodies flop from exhaustion. The chicken farmer is outside because the air quality in his own barns is so bad it triggers his asthma. These commercials insult the intelligence, they are stinking fairy tales! Propaganda for idiots. They are whitewashed brutality of the HORRIBLE track record of big agribusiness. THEY INSULT ANY SHRED OF INTELLIGENCE YOU MAY HAVE!

Am I saying all big ag-business is bad? No. Just most of it. Sorry. When you own agri-business that you never even set foot on, you have no business having that business and no animal should be raised by corporations, ever. THey should be raised by hands-on farmers. People whose eye is on ethics at least as much as on the bottom line. Is it possible? Damn straight. Is it happening? NOt enough.

I would be much more impressed with the A&W if the short, chubby guy sat down and had a heart to heart with the camera and said ethical treatment of their animals, from birth to death is the mandate of the A&W. Now that would take balls. Sadly the eating public is so hopelessly stupid that they wouldn't know a commercial of ethical magnitude if one hit them in the head. But I know, and I yell about it.

My husband yells at the dairy commercials where they ask for a glass of "insert vitamins and minerals here."

Commercials are stupid.

Good post UNO. Thanks

Saw a FB page yesterday that said 

The key to eating healthy? Avoid any food with a TV commercial

I was one of those hopelessly stupid public only a few years ago until I started reading your "rants"  and started to look and do some research.  I thank you for yelling about it

I just saw the A&W commercial. Yep, pretty stupid.

I gotta give credit to whatever beef seller sold this idea to A&W, though.

(The beef we raise is also hormone and antibiotic free AND ethically raised. We call it "beef." I am hoping this catches on soon.)

 good post!

I agree, Uno. In fact I mentioned that very same thing to the family the other day about the egg commercial. Where are the chickens??? all these nice brown eggs being collected at the crack of dawn, but where are the chickens?

uno wrote: Sadly the eating public is so hopelessly stupid that they wouldn't know a commercial of ethical magnitude if one hit them in the head. But I know, and I yell about it.

The sad part is that most consumers don't want to know. or they know but don't want to think about it. They want to chow down on A & W burgers and feel good about themselves for choosing a restaurant with a conscience that buys hormone free beef.
They like to imagine happy hens clucking about the farmyard scratching for bugs and chasing butterflies. That is the image implied by the commercials. Buy a dozen large white eggs for $1.99 and feel good about supporting the hard working egg farmers. Marketing works.

Isn't all beef in Canada in theory hormone free? I though it was illegal to sell beef pumped up with hormones, you can't just go buy hormones at a vet clinic without a prescription...legally and without flashing cash anyhow. Same with dairy, same with poultry isn't it? Honest question...it used to be illegal.

That A&W commercial drives me nuts. Their all fawning over the antibiotic free meat (fangirl SQUEAL!!) but seriously... it is still high fat Fast Food. That's like proclaiming the french fries are awesome because our potatoes were grown in cruelty free dirt and were given daily kisses by magical unicorns. The french fries are still deep fried. The way they were grown doesn't change the nutritional value my friend.

A very observant friend pointed out that the ad actually says there are no hormones or antibiotics added to the meat.

Are they saying that as the ground beef was being squished into patties, they made sure to add salt and pepper, but no hormones and antibiotics?

What they DID NOT say was, this cow was raised hormone and anti-biotic free. The difference between the two statements is slight, but huge!

Growth hormones in beef cattle is legal in Canada unless it has been recently changed-http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/vet/faq/growth_hormones_promoters_croissance_hormonaux_stimulateurs-eng.php
There have been some negotiations involving trade with the EU involving Canada's use of growth hormones.
There are also some growth stimulants that in my opinion are performance enhancing (growth enhancing in cattle) products.

Oh you thought provoking girl, you never, ever cease to bring a smile to my face. I am replying, cause I know that you love it when people say something, anything, just know full well Uno, that you have a following, you are beautiful! Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

Oh, I have nothing to say about your post, but surely do love to read everything you write, write on, never stop being who you are my friend.

I think it's important to note at this point that any hormones or stimulants are probably not being implanted at the cow/calf producer's operation. We do not use them here, and no one I know uses them, either.

It used to be quite common to give a ralgro implant to young calves as a growth stimulant, but I don't think that's the case anymore.

Rosewood that is a interesting read on the growth Hormones and that there are some that are approved in
I hope if People Buy their feed for cattle that there is no unknown Growth Hormones added to the feed.
Thanks for the page link

Appway, I don't know of any commercial beef rations that have growth hormones added to them. When they say "feed additive" I suspect it's a product that is purchased separately and mixed by the feedlot into the grain at the time of feeding. You would have to ask specifically for the growth hormone product to receive it.

I would venture, though, that most feedlots that are using growth stimulants or hormones are using the implants that go behind the ear, as with the product Ralgro. It would be simple to do the implant when they're bringing the cattle in. When I used to sell feed and livestock drugs, Ralgro was the implant of choice for the few cow/calf producers that went that route.

Thanks Authenticfarm that is good to Know so Ralgro is still usable in canada? even tho it is a growth Hormone?

Yes, I had a look at the link that was provided here and the ingredient in Ralgro (zeranol) is on the approved list - not sure how up to date that link is, though. You used to be able to get Ralgro at the feed store, but things have changed so much in the last decade, feed stores are not allowed to carry as many different drugs as they once were. I know that the store I worked at kept Ralgro behind the counter, customers had to ask for it specifically. It was the only thing we kept behind the counter like that, to my recollection.

They did discontinue the use of Zilmax recently, a gal I know who works at a feedlot shared this link on facebook - [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I know there are some large farms near me who use growth hormones on their cattle. It is sad to see this happening as we used to be proud to have farm raised beef from local farms, but now have to ask if they use hormones. .

If anyone in the Edmonton/Wetaskiwin areas are wanting grass-fed, hormone-free, ethically-raised beef, I can hook you up with a friend of mine who is in the business of selling to the public.

I always wondered if I was the only one who yells at the TV for advertising stupid sh!t. Turns out I'm not  

I say the same thing about those commercials. The other commercial that grates my nerves is the Schnieders commercial of "How far would you go to get an all natural product?" Cut to her cruising thru what about 4 generations. How bad did it have to get that you are actually saying by the way we fed you crap off the floor but now we thought maybe just maybe you would pay for the stuff off the table. Nevermind all the injectable crap we put into it.
I can't help but think what a slap in the face they are giving the collective public.
An that's why I call some of those people sheepeople, sad but true

When I rule the world, which is scheduled to happen later this afternoon, before anyone in this country puts food in their face, they will have to take a course, Animal Birth to Death 101.

THey will be given several baby animals of different species, have to raise them PROPERLY AND HUMANELY with the health and mental well being of the animal in equal balance with profitability. They will have to then kill and process the animal with their own hands, not ship them off where they do not witness the process. They will each have to spend time on the kill floor of a large slaughterhouse as well as out in the yard where they are offloaded and handled through chutes/alleys. If you pass the course then you can buy groceries. If not, we send you to the far north to eat lichen with the reindeer.

Was listening to the radio about some country who pays the highest amount of their income to buy food, and it was like 20%. 20% of an income to buy food is considered high? 20% to keep your belly full? Holy cow! Have we become a nation of entitled boobs who think food ought to fall from heaven, FOR FREE and land on our plates for less than 20% of our annual income?! No wonder this country is a mess and the plight of food animals is extreme. We see them as the least valuable item in the food chain. IF food should be free, animals are worth nothing. Man, we think like idiots, in a collective sense.

I am going to the A&W but I tell you, I'm only going to eat a hash brown. That's right. A hormone and antibiotic free potato. Give me hash. Make it brown. And make it quick!

Uno, we watch a potato field on our way to Kamloops and compare to the potatoes we grow here. I'm not sure that the potato is any different than the beef.

I have to laugh at the egg one as I can realy
see a big egg farmer driving what looks like
a basket of a few dozen eggs down to the dock
to be shipped.
I usually mute the commercials.

Just heard it on TV and it actually says no added hormones or steroids.  Doesn't even say anything about antibiotics at all.
If you are worried about hormones then you should make sure any beef you eat is a steer or a sterilised heifer.  Bulls and cycling heifers are full of raging hormones coursing thru their bodies!!

(nothing better than heifer meat in my opinion!)

Holy cow I don't know why I would have ever even considered steroids in beef??? Really does this happen?

Why heifers, Coopslave?