Veganuary Is Over… Now What? Our Top Visuals To Keep the Dialogue Going About Veganism

Veganuary has come and gone. This international campaign that encourages individuals to "Try Vegan" for the month of January has tremendous impact - with over 600,000 individuals signing up this year alone.?

With the support of celebrities, professional athletes, high-calibre chefs, empowering marketing materials and a plethora of resources, Veganuary has allowed the concept of veganism to enter the mainstream. Veganuary is doing something right!

So how do we sustain this energy? As a photojournalism agency, we firmly believe that high-quality, high-impact visuals are the key to talking about veganism to new audiences.

As animal photojournalism experts, we've compiled our top picks of visuals for you to use to continue the dialogue about veganism with your audience. These visuals are ideal for campaigns, email newsletters, blog posts, social media, however you communicate to your audience. We'll tell you how to best use them, and of course, where you can download these images for free (hint: it's the We Animals Media stock site)

Bring The Audience In

For any campaign, blog post, social media carousel, you need a visual to captivate your audience. Think back on campaigns that have impacted you - that have moved you to question your behaviour, moved you to action, or to donate. Without fail, the strongest campaigns use gripping images to motivate their audiences and convey their main point. The picture you choose will depend primarily on your audience, how you want to motivate them and what you want to express to them.

Farmed animals are hidden from our view in factory farms, slaughterhouses and transport trucks. For this reason, eye contact is profoundly impactful. The images below allow the viewer to meet the individual behind the lens - perhaps for the first time - and connect in a way they may never have before.?

Day-old chicks are packed into crates at an industrial hatchery. During transport to farms, they are often unprotected from heat and cold.?Poland, 2019. Photo credit: Konrad Lozinski / HIDDEN / We Animals Media

Los Angeles Animal Save vigil at the Farmer John slaughterhouse. Dozens of trucks filled with pigs arrived and activists gave water to the thirsty pigs. Los Angeles, 2019. Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media

Tip: you can search the term "eye contact" on the We Animals Media stock site.

Talk About The “Why”

Why should people try veganism? Here is an excellent opportunity to talk about factory farming or the consequences of animal agriculture on our climate stability. What’s the best way to talk about factory farming to a new audience? A tip from Jo-Anne McArthur, We Animals Media founder: show scope, but also show the individuals.

Tens of thousands of young chickens in a multi-level industrial farm. Yilan, Taiwan, 2019. Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media

An industrial chicken facility holds hundreds of thousands of chickens bred for meat (known as "broilers"). Chickens are genetically bred to grow quickly, and they are slaughtered between five and six weeks of age. Denmark, 2017. Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media

And Animal Products?

It may be obvious to you why animal by-products (milk, cheese, eggs) should be avoided, but assume your audience does not know why. Find a visual that best encapsulates those industries.

Still wet from birth, a calf is wheeled away from her mother to the veal crates at a dairy farm. Spain, 2010. Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / Animal Equality / We Animals Media

Collecting eggs from caged hens at an industrial farm. Taiwan, 2019. Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media

Don’t Forget The Taste Buds!

As we know, the world of plant-based food is bursting with flavour and innovation. Why not show your audience what the #FutureofFood looks like?

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you! That's salmon. Cell-cultivated salmon that is. These small slices of cell-cultivated salmon were grown in a lab by Wildtype Foods. San Francisco, 2021. Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media

Freshly packaged cultured vegan butter, made of ethically-sourced cashews, at the Miyoko's Creamery facility. California, 2021. Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media

It’s All About The Animals?

At its core, veganism is about compassion. Animals used for food are rarely in the public consciousness. This needs to change. Here is a great opportunity to showcase how playful and intelligent pigs are, the fearful eye of a cow on its way to slaughter, or the injustice of young chicks born into the factory farming system.?

Young piglets Patsy & Saffron play in the Summer sunshine in their enclosure. Newly rescued, they are briefly in quarantine before joining the rest of the pigs at Pigs In The Wood sanctuary. Huddersfield, United Kingdom, 2021. Photo credit: Tom Woollard / We Animals Media

Animals transported for slaughter from across Europe through the Bulgarian-Turkish border. 2018. Jo-Anne McArthur / Eyes On Animals / We Animals

Two chicks stand over a dead chick at a factory farm. Italy, 2017. Photo credit: Stefano Belacchi / Animal Equality / We Animals Media

Use The We Animals Media Stock Site

Good luck with your campaign! As always, our We Animals Media stock site offers high-quality visuals to support your animal advocacy efforts, at no cost for non-commercial use. Access this gallery of images here.

Jane, at Farm Sanctuary. New York, 2012. Photo credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals Media