A look at the offline and online offering of Vbites
I popped down to the opening of Heather Mills Vegan cafe ‘Vbites‘ on Saturday as I??d heard whispers of its opening for a few months and fancied seeing what she had done with the old fish eatery that used to be there before. Another think that I wanted to see was how ‘Vbites’ was promoting itself, being interested in media and the way ethical ventures make that leap from hippy idealism (something I have struggled with myself) to cool rich media and an understanding of social capitol.
The opening itself was as my actor friend pointed out “a little frayed around its vegan edges”, with a very loud Glenn Miller band for the old folks, a dodgy microphone for Heathers opening speech and more ‘old media’ journalists that you could shake a stick at.
Heather however looks superb and I was at the front cheering her on as she appeared on top of the building relaxing against the ‘Vbites’ diner style sign. I’ve been an admirer of Heather for years, ever since she appeared on the Big Breakfast and described how she lost her leg by being hit by a police motorcycle. The fact that she was married to a pop star bla bla, doesn??t really interest me and I much prefer to read about her animal welfare exploits.
As I was leaving I collared one of their PR girls and said that I??d like her to guest blog and that she needed some advice on her website. I was tempted to grab Heather as she popped out the back of Vbites and beg her to get a new developer, but she was on the phone so I thought I??d leave it.
Now, the Vbites website:
Vbites website
What??s wrong with the website:
The menu does not contain keywords specific to the campaign
The content has not real direction on any of the pages
No specific menu pages
Their are no social networking links on the homepage
No RSS feed for subscriptions to the newsletter
No real calls to action
No SEO across the site based on the lack on title tags, keyword inclusion etc
Lack of pages on the site, if the sitemap is to be trusted
The press and media page has no rich media or any real content
The lack of humanity on the site is frightening - add some images of the place, the workers, heather, kids eating lunches, the skaters outside
There are so many opportunities here for some great social media, so many aspects to the cafe that can be drawn upon to make it both an on and offline success.
No internal linking
More inbound links from relevant sources
I do find it unfortunate that allot of vegan and ethical sites are missing the basics of good design and SEO, it doesn??t seam important in the grand scheme of things but it does make a profound difference as to how users see you. Any site, no matter what it is saying needs to be making a media statement about its efforts, services or products… it is the fundamentals of it being a website and with all the competition out there, sites like Vbites need to stand out from the crowd or risk just becoming a dead weight online page that tarnishes the offline appeal of a great concept.
I’ll think of a few nice little ideas for Vbites social media and see if we can??t get it moving.
One last thing that I think would be nice for Vbites to is to add ‘deliveries’ to its offerings, swift deliveries of ‘Mrs. swirly’ vegan ice cream for example.
I did have difficulty finding any articles to add below this, as it seams most of the press that turned up were only there to slag her off, a bit pathetic on a sunny day to head down there just for that, but … who am i to judge.
We eat fish because it makes us clever, we eat fish because we like the taste and we eat fish due to its healthy properties. Only one of the above is true - guess which one.
Sorry, I??ve been absent for a week, I??ve been working on a few things.. doing a bit of this and that, catching up at work and generally worrying about the state of the planet, animal and fish welfare and where to get good vegan cheese (I??ll find it)
So, I’ve just finished hoovering out my fish tank, yep that??s ‘hoovering’ and all my tropical fish are playing around my hand, fish nibbling at me, some little ones spitting water at me and a couple of pencil fish watching me from underneath the big rocks with a look that says ??whats the food goddess doing in here?. And I thought, yes, its time for my ‘why eat fish’ post., I??ve been planning it in my head for a while, I??ve got a video, lets do it.
Donald in reeds, Daphanie comes into feed
Fish flesh was the last meat I gave up when I was a vegetarian. Why? because I didn??t understand fish, in fact I knew nothing about fish really, the only connection I had with them was passing by the fish section in Waitrose or the seafood sellers down on Brighton beach. I knew that fish were alive but I suppose I never really thought about their consciousness, their actual intelligence I mean I had no reason to I guess, it??s all so part of everyday life ??the consumption of fish?? ?? fishing ?? cans of tuna ?? white bait at the local Tapas bar.
But when I bought my first goldfish ? things changed. Honestly, not over night but gradually. I started to notice little things, like the fish would swim up to the top when I was close to the tank, would trust me enough to nip at my fingers, would suffer from stress, build up relationships with other tank mates and actually look like they mourned when they died. My favourite was called Meemoo he was a tiny ??pearscale?? which looks a bit like a goldfish that has swallowed a marble. He would blow water bubbles at the surface to wake me up when he was hungry, stare at me when I was using my laptop for hours and swim away when I turned to look and showed a lot of affection for the others in the tank. I lost him sadly about 6 months ago when another fish developed white spot and it killed off all my fish. But, I had had him and his little fish mates for 1 year and in that time they had taught me a lot about fish and encouraged me to find out more.
My clown loach Donald and tank mates
My new tank is a lot bigger and houses around 43 tiny tetra varieties and 2 big clown loaches, it??s a hard job keeping them happy but it??s a pleasure to do so. I??ve spent along time observing these fish for signs of infection, bullying, stress and pregnancy and what I find so incredible is that it??s not all text book. They are all different, they play, some prefer to hide and keep to themselves, others carry food around like a trophy for an hour, while others eat it at once. Some sleep curled up together on the bottom while others float and some are just naturally happy where others seam predisposed to be ? well moody.
My fish peewee that died recently
I stopped eating fish after I discovered all of this and I couldn??t bare the idea that I was eating or rather I was part of the process that lead to a fish, just as playful and clever as my fishes death. The difference between fish and farm animals is that people deny that fish can feel pain, which is why the fishing industry??s get away with such horrific abuse. Fish don??t cry out in pain, due to the fact that they simply don??t communicate like that, they struggle and gasp but are seen almost like automatons.
The problem is that humans do not believe that fish feel pain and thus do not deserve the type of welfare that is at least partially enforced for animals with fur.
Green tetra, dannio and alpha guppie in reeds
I think anyone would agree that pain is a way of detecting injury and that this is something that would be invaluable to an animal that is preyed upon by other animals. Pain is also part of the learning process, if something burns we don??t touch it again, if something is really cold we might put gloves on.
??Animals respond to painful damage in a similar way. Their responses comprise several behavioural and physiological changes: they eat less food, their normal behaviour is disrupted, their social behaviour is suppressed and they may adopt unusual behaviour patterns (typically, highly repetitive or stereotyped behaviours, such as rocking to and fro), they may emit characteristic distress calls, and they experience respiratory and cardiovascular changes, as well as inflammation and release of stress hormones.?
In trails by scientists at Edinburgh University and the Roslin Institute the teams tested fish for pain receptors
??The team compared the behaviour of fish that had either bee venom or acetic acid injected into their lips with animals that had received harmless saline.
The fish given the nasty chemicals showed clear signs of physiological stress, the researchers found. They took 90 minutes longer to resume feeding and their rate of gill breathing was characteristic of a fish swimming at top speed.
More surprisingly, they displayed very unusual behaviours such as rocking from side to side. Sneddon believes this may be similar to repetitive behaviours sometimes seen in zoo animals. The fish treated with acid also rubbed their lips on the sides and bottom of the tank.?
??In vertebrates, nociceptive information is collated and augmented in the brain and signals are relayed down the nervous system to alter the intensity of pain. All vertebrates possess the primitive areas of the brain to process nociceptive information, namely the medulla, thalamus and limbic system.?
In humans the main area of pain recognition is the cortex which in fish is very small but still exists.
What this all comes down to is, human beings consider only animals that have self awareness are capable of experiencing pain, the issue is, this is a subject point of view made by only one animal group ??humans?. We can??t ask a fish if he or she is aware of its existence due to our limited understanding of their communication, so we have to work on how they respond to certain situations.
Fish, and this is something I??ve noticed in fish that I have owned and fish in the local aquarium, weigh up other fish before fighting meaning that they are aware of their size. It has also been shown that fish can remember up to 40 individuals, most fish will learn to recognise their owners and some even sulk when someone else feeds them, some fish play with balls and new evidence has found that the tiny blind cave fish can work build up a map of their new surroundings in only a few hours.
I of course will allow you to make your mind up on this subject as for the rest of the world other than vegans and vegetarians (and those that do not eat fish) the jury is out.
I interviewed the guys from my local tropical fish store about fish intelligence and what they feel about the environment and marine fishing.
I highly recommend the Peta sea kittens page and design your own sea kitten by clicking on my little creation Meemoo.
