This Toll Free Number On A Billboard Is Connecting Unsuspecting Angelenos To A Friendly Vegan

There's just something about billboards and Los Angeles.

These old-school advertisements are larger-than-life in a city that owns the patent on larger-than-life. They turn their subjects into homegrown figures and inspire both art and Hollywood parodies.

Yes, we are fans — dare say even a little obsessed — but we are not the only ones. That's because when a group of vegans decided recently to spread of gospel and benefits of plant-based eating, the tried-and-true form they landed on to get the message across is a billboard campaign — one that mimics those we see everywhere in L.A.

"We're trying to capture the zeitgeist with what they call 'ambulance chaser' ads," said Lori Amos, a strategist with Eat Differently, the organization behind the campaign.

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Amos, who lives in Lake Balboa, said at a street corner close to where she lives are a number of these personal injury lawyer ads. Their ubiquity proves one thing — they get people's attention.

The campaign that Eat Differently has built, which also includes ad buys on streaming music and TV sites, features a fictional law firm soliciting cases from those who are the victims of "vegan zealots." Los Angeles is the campaign's launch city, with a plan to expand to other parts of the country.

"It looks very Better Call Saul," Amos, a longtime ad industry person and a vegan herself, said of the aesthetics.

On the two dozen or so billboards sprinkled throughout Greater Los Angeles is the phone number, 866-hate-vegans.

"It just gives you such a visceral feeling," said Amos of the wording. "Most people get the joke ... it makes it funnier, by way of being kind of a hyperbole."

Since the ad campaign rolled out earlier this month, Amos said that as many as 100 people dial that toll free number a day, where they'll be greeted first with a voice recording touting the health and other advantages of veganism. Then, they'll be connected to a real person.

"I answer as many as I can," said Amos, the campaign's one-person call center. "I don't answer them all."

A consistent number of callers that she does talk to, said Amos, are calling in on the side of the road. "They don't even wait till they get home."

On the other end of the line is oftentimes unadulterated laughter.

Eventually Amos and the callers would get talking about the idea behind the campaign and the vegan lifestyle. The goal is start small — to get people to learn more about going meat-free, then maybe try a vegan restaurant, or even cook a plant-based meal at home.

"This is just a way for us to have the conversations," said Amos. "We don't want to be a judgy vegan. One of the best ways to do that is through humor."