The Triumphant Return of the Viva! La Burger Tour

This August our iconic burger van headed out for it’s third tour wrapped in our new distinctive Eating the Earth campaign branding, with a very clear call to action – choose vegan to save the world’s wildlife.

Over six exciting days, Viva! staff and volunteers were busy handing out the delicious Moving Mountain burgers to show the public just how tasty, and kinder for the planet, vegan alternatives are.

We are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction with currently one million species under threat. Viva!’s Eating the Earth campaign reveals that at the heart of this problem is the massive global demand for meat, dairy, fish and eggs. This is partly due to the vast amount of land animal agriculture requires – 83 per cent of the world’s farmland to be exact.

Over this tour we visited six cities across the east of England: Southend-on-Sea, Ipswich, Norwich, Cambridge, Peterborough and Leicester. All bar one of these locations were new territory for Viva!, enabling us to have empowering and awareness raising conversations with a new audience, showcasing just how tasty a vegan diet is.

The public across all the cities loved the campaign and the burger – the queues literally never stopped! People lined entire high streets in order to try a vegan burger and learn about the many benefits of a vegan lifestyle.

The tide is definitely turning towards veganism – increasingly we are seeing more and more vegan products on the supermarket’s shelves, and when on tour we are always welcomed with overwhelming positive responses. For many on this tour, it was their first time having a vegan burger and they were amazed to discover how great it tasted.

Alongside our striking burger van, we had campaign materials to hammer home our key message that eating meat, dairy, fish and eggs is the number one driver of wildlife extinction. It was hard for passers-by to miss our latest hard-hitting campaign film which we broadcasted on the side of an imposing video van. This film directed the shopper’s focus to the absurdity of eating a meat and dairy-based diet considering the current climate and ecological crises.

These alarming, but crucial, campaign messages resonated with many of those who we talked to, opening their eyes to the deadly reality of eating meat and dairy.

While the information we are sharing is very worrying, we make sure in our conversations to always draw focus to the point that there is a positive solution not only for wildlife and the planet, but also one that alleviates the suffering of farmed animals across the world – going vegan! Over the six days we handed out nearly 1,500 burgers while having conversations around why it’s essential to go vegan for wildlife, the planet and for farmed animals, alongside how Viva! can help people on their vegan journey.

We even bumped into our good friend the Hench Herbivore, who highlighted how veganism is really a no-brainer if you think about it.

Over the week, we were busy sharing the simple swaps available on the market using our “Burger Swap” board – from takeaway favourites to best budget burgers. One person from Cambridge was pleased to find that there were numerous burgers swaps available when he came to ask where he could buy the patties after finding them so delicious.

We were so pleased to see the burger tour gain great traction in the local press, with it being featured in 11 local publications. In Ipswich, Environment Campaigner Jasmine Clark talked to Suffolk News about the campaign. In their article, they said that parking a vegan van in the middle of the Cornhill (essentially the town centre) was a bold move. At Viva! we pride ourselves on these bold awareness raising campaigns and street actions as they are essential to empower people to help build a society kinder for the planet and all animals that live on it.

See all the media coverage of the tour here.

A massive thank you!

In every city we were joined by passionate and enthusiastic volunteers, helping spread awareness of our campaign. We would like to say a massive thank you to all of them who make our street actions possible – we could not do this important work without you.

Get all the practical help you need from our Going Vegan section and discover the simple swaps you can make through our Vegan Swap page. Discover over a thousand delicious vegan recipes by visiting our Vegan Recipe Club or go one step further and challenge yourself to try vegan for a week with our V7 meal plan.

Stay tuned for more exciting Eating the Earth campaigns coming soon!