By Kirsty Coleman-
Beyoncé and Jay-Z have gone out of their way to giove veganism the promotion it deserves by announcing the chance for one lucky fan to win free tickets to their concerts for life. The announcement was made via Beyoncé’s Instagram page, hash-tagging ‘greenprintproject’, the initiative of 22 Days Nutrition. The social media post reached over 500,000 likes by Thursday evening.
The pair have launched the competition to reward one fan with free tickets for life to their concerts – if they adopt a vegan diet.
The prize, announced to Beyoncé’s Instagram followers, is being run in conjunction with The Greenprint Project, a vegan campaign started by Beyoncé’s personal trainer Marco Borges. The couple deserve huge praise for appreciating the values of pursuing a vegan diet, something that is given insufficient attention in this day and age. The push for veganism is growing, and converts are multiplying in their millions all over the world.
According to the competition website, the value of the lifetime tickets is around $12,000 (circa £9,200). Only adult residents of the United States, however, are eligible.
“We all have a responsibility to stand up for our health and the health of the planet,” they continued. “Let’s take this stand together. Let’s spread the truth. Let’s make this mission a movement”, the pair jointly stated. The offer – which Beyonce has shared with her 123 million Instagram followers – is for one fan only and has a 30-year time limit.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z recently wrote a joint introduction to The Greenprint: Plant-Based Diet, Best Body, Better World, a 2018 book by Borges, in which they lauded veganism’s “profound impact on our health and the environment”.
22 DAYS NUTRITION
In December 2013, both Beyoncé and Jay-Z decided to go vegan for 22 days, and research suggests that their decision and its publicity has since triggered a huge rise in veganism, despite only following the vegan diet, rather than a vegan lifestyle. Why 22 days? The company named 22 Days Nutrition, founded by Marco Borges, chose this name because psychologists believe it takes 21 days to break a habit. This helped create their mission of encouraging people to reach a major breakthrough by the 22nd day. Beyoncé and Jay-Z partnered with 22 Day Nutrition in 2015 to launch an online tool to allow the public to create personal vegan meal plans, including a delivery service, allowing the change to vegan become easier and simpler. They share vegan recipes, sell organic vegan protein powders and protein bars, 22 days nutrition merchandise and the official GREENPRINT book.
THE GREENPRINT PROJECT
By visiting ‘thegreenprintproject.com’, people can see the incredible and interactive website which allows its users to explore the impact they can have on animals and the planet, if they make the pledge to eat more vegan meals. Before making the pledge, the website asks, “what’s your greenprint?”, before giving options of, ‘all plants all the time, plant-based for breakfast, plant-based at work, 2 plant-based meals a day, meatless Mondays or plant-based on weekdays’. Choose a pledge and share it via your social media. However, this does not enter you into the competition and in order to enter, you must enter the details required in the specific menu.
RESTRICTIONS
There are a couple of sneaky restrictions to this competition. The free concert tickets for “life”, is in fact up to 30 years, and one concert per tour. The official terms and conditions state this prize is estimated to be worth approximately $12,000. This is based on the full 30 years, on average of one official scheduled tour anticipated per year, one concert per tour, and an estimated average ticket price of $100. This competition is also for US residents only, aged 18 or over.
PUBLIC REACTIONS
Whilst plenty of American Beyoncé and Jay-Z fans are pleased at this unique opportunity, and are more than willing to make a pledge, not everyone views this as an opportunity to win something. One individual criticised Beyonce for not doing enough to promote veganism, and for instead promoting a plant-based diet mainly for weight loss to gain fans. He commented, “Cool. Will you stop wearing fur and leather? Will you promote veganism instead of plant based? Educate your fans on the true horrors of slaughterhouses? Inform your fans on what animal agriculture is doing to the environment? Will you stop using veganism as a platform for weight loss? It is a lifestyle. Not a diet to lose weight so you can perform at a festival that is notoriously anti LGBT, which is a large part of your fan base? Will you stop living a hypocritical lifestyle and just become vegan?
CRITICISM
Beyoncé was criticised by the animal rights group, PETA, twice in 2013, the same year she tried the 22 day vegan challenge. The first for wearing a fur coat at Barak Obama’s inauguration, and secondly for wearing an all-leather Super Bowl outfit. A quote from the PETA said, “We would take a bet that if Beyoncé watched our video exposés, she’d probably not want to be seen again in anything made of snakes, lizards, rabbits, or other animals who died painfully.” The outfit was reported to have been made using engineered python, panelled iguana and trapunto/pick stitched leather. Perhaps this explains why not everyone sees Beyoncé as an important figure in the movement of veganism. However, the animal rights group seem to have forgiven Beyoncé for these actions, placing her at number one in their recent ’10 celebrities who’ll inspire you to go vegan in 2019′, articles.
Beyonce’s public offer of a free concert ticket to a fan who goes vegan for 22 days cannot be overlooked, but the U.S singing star has to go a few extra miles to become the ideal and complete representative of veganism. She will have to realise that being a vegan is a whole life transformation that extends beyond just abstaining from meat into shunning all things that represent a disregard for the precious lives of innocent animals who are on this planet as our friends and companions, not to be cold heartedly killed and used for our selfish gains.