If you’re in Los Angeles, you might have noticed a billboard asking if you’ve been injured by a vegan and encouraging you to call 866-HATEVEGANS. The eye-catching billboards are part of a satire campaign launched earlier this month by the plant-based advocacy group Eat Differently.
The ad campaign aims to use humor to bring people to hatevegans.com, the website for fictional injury attorney Seymour Loudermilk, which actually has links to information about animal cruelty, factory farming, and other resources. The website suggests that Loudermilk can win massive settlements for people who have been “injured” by preachy vegans.
If you haven’t noticed these billboards, it could be because actual personal injury attorneys spend millions of dollars on ads every year. Maybe they just blend in with all the other billboards you pass on your daily commute. In 2023 alone, Californians were inundated with more than 2.3 million legal services ads. More than 75% of those ads were for personal injury claims. Advertisers spent more than $238.8 million on these ad campaigns, which help them attract more claimants to win bigger settlements - much of which goes into the attorneys’ pockets.
The "testimonials" section of fictional attorney Seymour Loudermilk’s website exposes a dark truth about personal injury attorneys. One “former client” of Loudermilk’s says the attorney won a $5.8 million settlement for him after he experienced “emotional turmoil” as a result of advice from a vegan physician. The website says, “Seymour fought medical science for Kenneth, and he’ll fight it all day long for YOU!”
Sadly, this is no joke. Studies have found that ads from personal injury lawyers can rely on dubious scientific claims. Consumers see these “doomsday” ads and may stop taking a prescribed medication or using a medical device without consulting their healthcare provider. In some cases, this has led to serious health problems for these patients - even death.
Eat Differently’s new ad campaign is a humorous way to draw people to Loudermilk’s website, where they might end up reading something that changes their mind about their diet or health. But maybe it can also open people’s eyes to the reality behind the millions of ads they see and hear from real personal injury attorneys and the damage they can cause.