A lush green pasture, happy cows, hens pecking freely: these are the images we often see in the advertisements produced and promoted by the food industry, broadcast on television and printed on roadside billboards and product labels. These images tell the story of a world that no longer exists — they are misleading advertisements. Production rooted in Italian tradition, rural life, open pastures: all of this has been progressively replaced by a system of intensive farming.

This is demonstrated by the hundreds of investigations regularly carried out by Animal Equality in Italy and in the other countries where it operates — and not only by those: there are also the investigations of many other organisations working to protect animals and the environment, as well as the results of spot checks carried out by Italian and international authorities.

Through our investigations we try to debunk the myth of "happy farms", but if the industry is free to keep telling its distorted version of the truth, how are we going to counter it?

A campaign to stop misleading advertisements

Just a few weeks ago, we launched a new campaign called Stop alle pubblicità ingannevoli, creating an online form that anyone can fill in at any time to report a potentially misleading advertisement.

The reports will be examined by the organisation's legal collaborators and — where there are legal grounds or alleged violations — a complaint or report will be submitted to the competent authorities.

The decision to launch this campaign came in the wake of several legal victories that have demonstrated just how misleading the image created by the food industry around the conditions of animals in farms and slaughterhouses truly is.

Do you think an advertisement is misleading?
Report it to Animal Equality

The reality is not what consumers are shown

In Italy in particular we achieved an important victory against Amadori: thanks to the work of our investigators and the legal action taken by Enpa (the Ente nazionale protezione animali), we managed to bring Amadori before the Autorità garante della concorrenza e del mercato on the grounds that the communications it was putting out about its chickens were potentially misleading when compared to the reality documented inside its farms. Our investigators, through the investigation Pollo 100 per cento italiano and other testimonies attached to the complaint, had amply demonstrated that the company's advertising and communications about its chickens were far removed from the reality faced by chickens reared for their meat.

Following the complaints, a criminal trial was also set in motion, which led to the conviction of the legal representative and the keeper of one of the farms under investigation for mistreatment, abandonment and killing.

An industry sustained by public funds

But the Amadori case is just one of many. The Italian agri-food industry is worth approximately 93.4 billion euros (data from the Ismea 2020 report) and is extensively supported by public funds, such as the European CAP — which accounts for 34.5 per cent of the European Union's budget — and it is probably also for this reason that the image conveyed on company websites, television commercials and advertising billboards is heavily sanitised.

What is never shown is the overcrowding, the cramped cages, the diseases and malformations, the poor hygiene and sanitary conditions, or the situations of mistreatment encountered every day in farms and slaughterhouses across our country too.

Misleading advertisements circulate all over the world

But the problem does not concern Italy alone. Animal Equality is also engaged in several complaints on these very issues in the United States. Particular mention is made of the ongoing legal actions against Tyson Foods and Cargill, Inc., both giants of meat production, accused by several organisations of marketing and promoting misleading communications to consumers.

Transparency and truthfulness in the information provided to the public are values that cannot be set aside, especially when the fundamental rights of citizens and animals are at stake.

By Greta di Fiore, communications team at Animal Equality Italia