From activism to the mainstream: Visual storytelling in representations of contemporary veganism

This thesis examines how contemporary veganism is represented through visual storytelling in European vegan food advertising. In recent years, veganism has shifted from its roots in ethical activism and animal rights towards a commercial and mainstream movement. This shift, often described as "Big Veganism", refers to the integration of vegan products into everyday markets through corporate branding and large-scale marketing strategies. As veganism enters the mainstream, it also becomes more diverse, shaped by different motivations such as anti-speciesism, environmentalism, and healthism. These overlapping motivations can lead to tensions in how veganism is portrayed in public discourse. In this context, advertising plays an important role in shaping how these dimensions are visually communicated. The aim of this thesis is to explore how advertising represents the different strands of contemporary veganism and the role of visual storytelling in creating these representations. Through the study of visual choices in advertising, this thesis seeks to better understand how veganism is visually constructed in the European context. To examine these dynamics, the study applies a visual analysis proposed by Machin and Mayr (2012, pp. 49-56) to a sample of 100 advertisements from European countries, published between 2018 and 2025. Drawing on a visual analysis framework, and using ATLAS.ti software for data management and coding, the research connects new patterns emerging from the dataset to the existing literature and identifies the main thematic framings and the visual storytelling techniques used. The findings reveal a clear predominance of lifestyle-oriented framings, centred around narratives of consumer pleasure, cosmopolitanism, and healthism. In contrast, less frequent representations highlight veganism as a social movement that concerns anti-speciesism and environmentalism. Where ethical framings do appear, they are often visually diluted or embedded within broader lifestyle appeals, raising questions about the ideological compromises made in the commodification of vegan discourse. The thesis concludes by calling for further research into underexplored areas such as the audience's interpretations of the different representations of veganism, the strategic use of humour and playfulness in vegan messaging, and the potential of counter-advertising to disrupt dominant market narratives. Overall, the study contributes to media and communication scholarship by exposing how advertising shapes evolving cultural meanings of veganism in an increasingly commodified media landscape.