Beyond Meat’s Greenwashing

In an ever evolving digital world, images have become key to capturing interests, as an image can convey a message better than a thousand words. At the same time, as a younger demographic dominates the market, businesses have prioritized sustainable practices to connect to this new consumer base. Consumers are more likely to have a positive perception of a company if it supports a cause they care about (Mohr, Webb, and Harris, 2025). However, greenwashing has become an issue, specifically in the food industry. Greenwashing misleads consumers and affects their trust in companies, making them less likely to buy products from a company (Vilkaitė-Vaitonė 2024). As the vegan population grows, companies have taken the opportunity to use this to their advantage. Beyond Meat, offers a meat alternative that claims to have a high protein content while also having low carbon emissions. However, these claims may not be as reliable as they seem.

The ad’s message is to appear as relatable towards consumers by making a joke based on an online trend and expressing concern for animals and climate change. The meat alternatives target consumers of all ages, whether they eat meat or follow a vegan diet, trying to convince them to switch to their brand. I fall into their target demographic since I enjoy eating meat and, as a younger individual, am more likely to change my habits compared to other demographics, making me an ideal audience. In an era where companies desperately try to connect with audiences through humor; I’ll admit this ad made me laugh and interested me in the company.

Beyond Meat uses its plant based products as a marketing tool to attract customers. However, according to CNBC, researchers are skeptical as diets based on unprocessed plants are both healthier and produce lower carbon emissions compared to processed plant based alternatives (Newburger & Lucas, 2019). This means Beyond Meat exaggerates the benefits of their production process in order to look better. Furthermore, CNBC states that while Beyond Meat’s products have a lower carbon footprint than beef, they still produce significantly higher emissions than a bean patty (Newburger & Lucas, 2019). Again, the company overstates its environmental impact by claiming that purchasing its product is “the most climate friendly thing to do”, making this a fake marketing claim (Newburger & Lucas, 2019). Beyond Meat’s marketing continues, as according to NBC News, in 2023, the company faced a lawsuit for miscalculating and overstating the protein content in its products, misleading consumers about their nutritional value (Wile, 2023). While Beyond Meat promotes itself as environmentally responsible, its continuous overstatements about its products’ benefits make them part of the modern greenwashing movement.

The ad was created and produced by Beyond Meat to promote its alternative meat while reinforcing their ideals on climate change and animals. The ad is a still image replicating a well known viral trend, where word is spelled out, and each letter represents a sentence. The ad features two green cows wearing sunglasses against a light green background, which is adjacent with Beyond Meat. The text, in white and green reads: “Yeah, I’m a little cow”. Each letter in “COW” represents a sentence:

C: “Concerned about animals”
O: “Only gonna say this once, climate change is real”
W: “Worried about you, have you eaten yet?”

The ad uses light green as background, an asymmetrical place of the cows on each side, and text in different shades of white, green and dark green. Colors in images can have meaning and create emotions that are important when creating connections between consumers and brands (Shagyrov and Shamoi 2024). The bold, colored letters serve as a focal point, drawing the viewer’s attention. The image is clear, and its abstract style due to the green cows and the odd organization of text, adds to its comic appeal. The most striking element of the ad is the two green cows, whose unusual color and photoshopped sunglasses add a comedic touch. This is part of the company’s goal of engaging with younger audiences by using humor and trends that transport their message and promote their products in a method they recognize. As seen in class, the popping colours and large shapes of the words create a psychological effect that attracts and interests a viewer. It uses the big word “COW” for the focal point to guide viewers into that section of the image. Additionally, the placement of each cow on each side and their size creates a makeshift corral for what is in the middle of the image, almost like instructing the viewers where to read. Before seeing this ad, I was already aware of Beyond Meat from seeing it in stores. Despite being a meat enthusiast, I found the ad entertaining and even considered trying the product. This means that Beyond Meat effectively uses their ad’s pictorial elements by connecting with their target demographic. Ads that have a strong emotional impact through positive or negative emotions are more likely to become viral; which Beyond Meat uses in this case with the comedic imagery (Dafonte-Gómez, Míguez-González, and Corbacho-Valencia 2020).

Bibliography
Dafonte-Gómez, Alberto, María-Isabel Míguez-González, and Juan-Manuel Corbacho-Valencia. 2020. “Viral Dissemination of Content in Advertising: Emotional Factors to Reach Consumers.” Communication & Society 33 (1): 107–20. https://doi.org/10.15581/003.33.1.107-120.
Mohr, Lois A, Deborah J Webb, and Katherine E Harris. 2025. “Thompson Rivers University Library – Library – Login to Licensed Databases.” Ebsco.com. 2025. https://research.ebsco.com/c/amz5ui/viewer/pdf/gizaybyzmz.
Newburger, Emma, and Amelia Lucas. 2019. “Beyond Meat Uses Climate Change to Market Fake Meat Substitutes. Scientists Are Cautious.” CNBC. CNBC. September 2, 2019. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/02/beyond-meat-uses-climate-change-to-market-fake-meat-substitutes-scientists-are-cautious.html.
Shagyrov, Maksat, and Pakizar Shamoi. 2024. “Color and Sentiment: A Study of Emotion-Based Color Palettes in Marketing.” 2024 Joint 13th International Conference on Soft Computing and Intelligent Systems and 25th International Symposium on Advanced Intelligent Systems (SCIS&Amp;ISIS), November, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1109/scisisis61014.2024.10759889.
Vilkaitė-Vaitonė, Neringa. 2024. “The Greenwashing Trap: How Misleading Marketing Affects Consumer Green Purchasing Habits.” Business: Theory and Practice 25 (2): 593–602. https://doi.org/10.3846/btp.2024.21204.
Wile, Rob. 2023. “Class-Action Lawsuits Alleging beyond Meat Deceived Consumers about Protein Content Will Be Combined in Chicago.” NBC News. February 3, 2023. https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/beyond-meat-lawsuit-protein-content-class-action-rcna68818.