Looking back there are so so many difficult conversations and amazing conversations that would have been improved by adding this little card into the mix. You know, the ones that start with an innocent question about veganism and end with teasing, mocking and judging, with bickering and arguing and shouting or passive aggressive jibes or defensive attacks. Especially with family. Or those tentative conversations with friends and acquaintances where someone is just too polite to tell you shut up and instead respectfully humours you even if they don’t really want to have the discussion. Or every now and then, those special and rarer conversations where someone is genuinely intrigued and interested in what you have to say about why you’re vegan, and wants to find out more. Particularly those, because those are where these little cards will have the greatest impact, and be treasured the most. So I faithfully carry them around with me by the handful, tucked into the pockets of my jeans on my weekend jaunts about town, in the pouches and secret sections of my backpacks, in my totes for work and even my clutch bags on nights out. I give them to my friends. I give them to strangers. I leave them on restaurant tables with my tip after I’ve paid the bill and slide them onto the bar while I sip my gin and tonic. I hide them at the supermarket in the shiny cardboard sleeves of the ready meals containing little broken bodies, and slip them into the pockets of jackets and coats made of skin and fur at the Trafford Centre. I add them to the displays of products down the diary isle and tuck them under the boxes that keep the delicate shells of eggs from spilling gooey clear and yellow discharge onto the shelves and into peoples shopping baskets. I leave them like love letters on the vanities in the ladies room. I lay them like offerings of remembrance and apology on the top of the tortured little bodies of the turkeys in the frozen isle. They can be a subtle tool to pass on information to an interested pre-gan, or a tool to bust the myths believed by an incredulous and entrenched carnist. I hope they can be a confronting tool too, to plant a seed in the mind of someone who never asked for or wanted the information.
I had my cards made up by Vista Print, and I chose a design that is quite subtle so it’s not off-putting to people who aren’t into animals rights – I wanted it to look attractive in it’s own right and not appear too shouty or aggressive. I also bought some Land of Hope and Glory cards from the Surge Activism website along with A5 size educational flyers, which come in just one quite emotive design, and are much cheaper than buying through Vista. The cards from Surge are £2.50 for 50 and the flyers are a bargain at only £3.50 for 100. I have no idea what my success rate is with turning people vegan using these materials, but at £35.00 for 250 cards from Vista Print and £6.00 for my order from the Surge website, if only 1 person turns vegan off the back of being handed my flyers and cards, then I’d say it’s money well spent!
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