Meatless Monday: How a simple idea sparked a global movement

Summary

Since Meatless Monday was started in 2003 by former advertising executive Sid Lerner and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, it has grown into a global movement active in 40 countries and 22 different languages, all with a simple message: give up meat one day a week for our health and the health of the planet. This presentation will tell the inside story behind Meatless Monday's success, and elucidate several broad themes that are relevant to the Summit: how a "big idea" that is simple to understand and easy to do can catalyze collective action; the role of innovative marketing and media strategies to disseminate messages without paid media, and how Meatless Monday has unified diverse individuals and organizations including celebrities, businesses, politicians, students, chefs and NGO's behind a common agenda and call-to-action. This session will highlight current initiatives to further the growth of the movement including a shared global web platform for meat reduction advocates, targeted efforts to engage large global stakeholders, creative materials that can be translated across cultures and languages and evaluations to measure impact in different settings. Reducing meat consumption is critical in achieving many SDG's including health, climate, clean water and sustainable consumption. Meatless Monday has been one of the earliest and leading voices in this area and can serve as a model for other advocacy and behavior change campaigns.

Background/Objectives

The goal of the session will be to share the key drivers behind Meatless Monday's success and inspire people with stories of advocates in the field. The session will highlight topics important to any behavior change campaign, including the role of big ideas in effective advertising, use of periodic cues in motivating behavior change and innovative ways to disseminate messages through existing channels. The session will also share updates on new initiatives to grow the movement through a shared web platform for global meat reduction advocates and targeted engagement of global stakeholders.

Description Of The Big Idea/experience/innovation And Its Importance To The SBCC Field:

From an advertising POV, Meatless Monday is a big idea. In two words, you know what to do and when to do it, and because it happens every 7 days, it creates habits that can be sustained over time. Meatless Monday is also an action that can be used to accomplish myriad goals from selling more plant-based products, driving diners into a restaurant on a slow night and providing advocates with a call-to-action that can help them achieve their own objectives, whether it's combatting climate change, promoting health or reduce suffering of farm animals. Given the cost of paid media, it's critical that social marketing campaigns find innovative ways to get their messages out. Meatless Monday is a model for how campaigns can extend their message by using other organization's megaphones.

Discussion/Implications For The Field

The experiences from the Meatless Monday movement offer many important insights that are relevant to Summit themes: 1.Meatless Monday has catalyzed transformational change to address many urgent SDG's including health, climate, clean water and sustainable consumption. 2.Meatless Monday has employed innovative methodologies in marketing, media, advocacy and academic research to advance the field of behavior change. 3.Meatless Monday is connecting the dots between meat reduction advocates across cultures, geographies and professions. The session will offer participants tools to join the Meatless Monday movement and insights to help them develop their own behavior change campaigns.

Abstract submitted by:

Peggy Neu - The Monday Campaigns