A feminist critique of Oatly

[Second Summer]

(Oatly is a Swedish company that makes oat products, including an oat milk which is probably the tastiest plant milk known to Man. Uh, and to Woman!)

I think I love Oatly for challenging this, for saying, “Hey, your products hurt, and that’s not a necessary.” Still, I have a problem with a lot of Oatly’s rhetoric. Because they, in many cases, use the same arguments for selling their products as the milk producers do. Take, for example, the Swedishness aspect. They not only write, “Wow, no cow!” on their products, but also: “No artificial badness,” “Swedish independent,” and “Packed with Swedish goodness.”

Firstly, in the end of 2014, Oatly launched Oatly Apparel featuring t-shirts with their slogans written on them. The photos of the t-shirts on their Facebook page show only white models. People have reacted to this, and Oatly writes that the models are their friends who did the shooting for free, and that they gladly show cool people of other ethnicity, gender and sexuality in other spaces such as Instagram. Looking at their Instagram, I can see that they might be sort of right, but mostly I see only the packages of the products. I think the whiteness of the models are also problematic and connected to “Swedishness.” Seeing a blonde girl dressed in blue jeans, jogging shoes, and a pink t-shirt saying “Packed with Swedish goodness” doesn’t really broaden the definition of Swedishness.

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More: On Swedish Veganism and Goodness: Intersections of Species, Gender, Race, & Nationality | VEGAN FEMINIST NETWORK (January 4, 2015)

Lots to think about in this piece. If you want to appeal to us progressive types, is it not enough that the company has an openly vegan agenda? Do they also have to represent a broad range of ethnicities, genders(!) and sexualities(!) in their marketing?

 

[Blobbenstein]

token people who represent different races, genders etc...

not really a very novel idea.

 

[Clueless Git]

token people who represent different races, genders etc...

not really a very novel idea.

Well, yeah, but by calling the name of the game South Park at least put a new twist on it ...

 

[ledboots]

(Oatly is a Swedish company that makes oat products, including an oat milk which is probably the tastiest plant milk known to Man. Uh, and to Woman!)


More: On Swedish Veganism and Goodness: Intersections of Species, Gender, Race, & Nationality | VEGAN FEMINIST NETWORK (January 4, 2015)

Lots to think about in this piece. If you want to appeal to us progressive types, is it not enough that the company has an openly vegan agenda? Do they also have to represent a broad range of ethnicities, genders(!) and sexualities(!) in their marketing?

Also, why is "goodness" a bad concept? Oat milk is good! And there are good things and bad things in the world.

 

[Dedalus]

Ugh. You need wings to navigate the mine-field of political correctness these days...

 

[Joe]

Can anyone recommend where to buy oat milk in the US? Whole Foods? Trader Joe's?

I had never heard of it before reading this thread. Sorry.

 

[Second Summer]

Can anyone recommend where to buy oat milk in the US? Whole Foods? Trader Joe's?

I had never heard of it before reading this thread. Sorry.

The special taste of the Oatly one is quite unique, just saying. I tried another oat milk over here, I think from Provamel, but it was horrible.

 

[Dedalus]

Can anyone recommend where to buy oat milk in the US? Whole Foods? Trader Joe's?

I had never heard of it before reading this thread. Sorry.

I've seen not this brand but Oat Milk at WF.

 

[Joe]

I Googled Oatly, and it seems that they (or an intermediary) are prepared to ship the product from Europe to a customer in the US. But I imagine that this would be prohibitively expensive. It apparently is not available in stores in the US.

 

[KLS52]

I tried Pacific Oat milk a few years ago. Pretty sure I purchased it at Whole Foods. I've seen it in a number of local stores. Sadly, I did not like it. So I tried making it. It was a little better than Pacific but I prefer almond milk.

 

[shyvas]

The special taste of the Oatly one is quite unique, just saying. I tried another oat milk over here, I think from Provamel, but it was horrible.

I agree. Oatly products ( especially Oatly cream) are outstanding and taste delicious. Apparently it is due to Swedish oats and they way they are cultivated.

I've just seen that they also have Oatly ice cream on the website. I've never seen it in the UK.

You can't find this brand in the US and furthermore the shipping costs would make it far too expensive.

I also don't particularly like Provamel products as they taste weird.

http://www.oatly.com/products/international/organic-oat-drink/

 

[Clueless Git]

Ugh. You need wings to navigate the mine-field of political correctness these days...

Nah, it's easy-peasy ...

Once everyone knows the meaning of a word that word becomes politicaly incorrect.

You replace that word with a new one that not everyone knows the meaning of.

Once everyone knows the meaning of the new word it becomes politicaly incorrect and gets replaced with a new-new word that not everyone knows the meaning of.

Repeat ad-finitum untill there are no words in the dictionary left.

 

[Blobbenstein]

I though political correctness meant just pretending that we aren't really Hitler.

 

[Spang]

Ugh. You need wings to navigate the mine-field of political correctness these days...

I used to think that as well, but it's really not that difficult.

 

[Blobbenstein]

do we get truth in advertising though?

Will you have honest interactions in adverts about toothpaste, or does a company want to portray a lovely world where nothing is wrong, butterflies land on the noses of children etc.

 

[Blobbenstein]

just maybe the way to a better world is honest discussion, dialectics, true representations of the situation the world is in. You hardly get that in advertising. An ad's job is to sell a product...it may also promote a view of the world that suits the company, and the corporate agenda.

Maybe there should only be black people in some ads, and a token white...

 

[Spang]

Will you have honest interactions in adverts about toothpaste, or does a company want to portray a lovely world where nothing is wrong, butterflies land on the noses of children etc.

Representation is important. A company should strive to have more than just pasty white people in its ads. But at the same time, it shouldn't look forced like a college brochure.

 

[Blobbenstein]

Representation is important. A company should strive to have more than just pasty white people in its ads. But at the same time, it shouldn't look forced like a college brochure.

well if it is forced, it's going to look forced.

Personally, if I were commissioning an advert, and I wanted to show representation, I would play around with the idea, and have all black people, in some ad, with the odd white person maybe(maybe not). All white people in other ads.
Oatly is white I suppose, so it might be suited to be advertised with pasty white people, and in contrast all black people, as well.

 

[ledboots]

Isn't "pasty" a little rude to those models?

 

[Spang]

Isn't "pasty" a little rude to those models?

My post wasn't directed at those models, or any other models.