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The National Dairy Council is to take a leading role is what chief executive Zoe Kavanagh called “shutting down the bullshit” of the anti-dairy lobby.
The National Dairy Council’s (NDC) latest advertising campaign has been targeted by PETA in the UK, with its followers lodged 126 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) over its use of the phrase “plant-based milk”.
“They have also unleashed the trolls, we are being trolled on our social media account,” Kavanagh told farmers at the Irish Farmers Journal Dairy Day in Punchestown on Thursday.
“The Irish dairy industry is in expansion mode and we need to get the message across that dairy is a very credible source of nutrition,” said Kavanagh.
Reputation
“Marketing and reputation management will be key going forward. It’s up to the National Dairy Council to take a leading role in shutting down the bullshit.”
“That detractor’s voice has been let away with a lot up to now,” she said, adding that it was up to everyone in the Irish dairy industry, farming organisations and farmers themselves to stand up for their industry, armed with the facts.
That detractor’s voice has been let away with a lot up to now
“There is a role for farmers, families and employees to assemble around telling the dairy story,” she insisted.
Aggressive
“There are around 200 very aggressive people [driving the anti-dairy campaign] on social media, but there are 18,000 families and over 100,000 people working in the industry who can tell the dairy story.”
Kavanagh added that it was not a matter of taking the same tactics as the anti-dairy campaign.
“There’s no point jumping on social media screaming, we need to equip everyone with the knowledge so that we can all become ambassadors for the sector,” she explained.
The National Dairy Council has created an app called ‘Dairy A to Z’ which has 185 questions and answers about the dairy industry and can be used by anyone who wants to provide facts.
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