More of the Flavor and None of the Flaws: Marketing Plant-Based Foods as Authentic to American and British Consumers

Because animal-based food marketers claim cultural authenticity and deride plant-based replacements as “fake,” we analyzed U.S. and U.K. vegan marketing authenticity claims. Vegan products are often positioned using indexical authenticity to emphasize their originality as better than familiar animal-based products, and less often using iconic authenticity stating they are convincing replicas. We offer recommendations to help vegan food marketers and activists further establish the cultural authenticity of plant-based consumption as normal, natural, necessary, and nice. Our recommendations include using transparent and affirmational terminology to take equivalent ownership of food categories; affirming the superiority of plant-based foods; revealing the deception in animal-based food marketing; flipping concerns about “processed” foods; and embracing cultural histories around plant-based foods.