Interview with Benjamin Neal

IVFF sat down with Benjamin Neal, a vegan artist and content creator from Orlando, Florida with over 40K followers on Instagram, to discuss the intersection between art and activism. Benjamin is a prospective for the 2024 IVFF and has submitted three pieces of content for consideration.

Scroll down to see one of his videos!

Follow Benjamin on Instagram @atomicvegans

What inspired you to become a filmmaker/content creator, and how did you get started?

I’ve been interested in art since I was very young. My mom is an artist and I think her love of art had a major impact on me. Though I love doing artwork within various mediums, I think my passion for storytelling led me toward filmmaking. Mostly I’m interested in longer form storytelling, like making feature length films, but when I started making content on social media I realized that I could also express those interests in a shorter format. Social media also provides a direct pipeline between artist and audience in which we can communicate with each other. I personally find this interaction very instrumental toward my interests as an artist. 

What are the main themes or messages you aim to convey through your content?

In college I learned that art could be a great tool to influence change. As soon as I went vegan, I knew that I wanted to devote a large amount of my time as an artist toward informing people about animal rights and to hopefully influence them to go vegan. With that in mind, I thought that I could achieve these goals through social media content creation. I created an Instagram account called Atomic Vegans with the hope of combining art and activism. 

How do you hope your content will impact viewers and contribute to the vegan movement?

Ultimately, I hope my content achieves one goal: get people to go vegan whether it’s by normalizing veganism or by allowing people to make that important connection to animals. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you face when creating content?

I think a big fear of mine is whether I’m having a positive or negative impact on the animal rights movement as a whole. I’m actually not sure if there’s truly ever a way to find this out but it’s always something on my mind. I want to make somewhat aggressive provocative content occasionally, but I want to avoid being too aggressive and essentially radicalize the other side beyond approach, as I’m seeing things like anti-veganism become more of a culture war issue. 

How do you overcome these challenges, and what have you learned from the experience?

I think being balanced in my approach. I make content that is provocative and content that is not. Someone recently described it as a good cop / bad cop approach, which I found fitting. When I am provocative, I also try to be as fair and nuanced as possible.  Often in my video descriptions I go into great detail explaining my position, while unpacking the nuances that I hold that can’t always be expressed in a short video. One thing I’m working on too is to be less aggressive with the non-vegans I engage with in the comment section. I generally only have been aggressive when they start out as being aggressive themselves but I’m starting to even keep my composure during those situations. 

How has your personal journey with veganism influenced your content creation?

When I first started making content, I mainly only had engagement from fellow vegans. During those times I made a lot of fun recipe/food review videos. As time went on I started attracting a lot more anti-vegans to my account, so my content started to focus more on converting people toward veganism. Essentially it started out as a vegan community page and it slowly morphed into more activism focused, though I make sure to keep the community aspect present. It’s a balancing act for sure but one that I enjoy. 

What aspects of veganism are most important to you, and how do they manifest in your work?

To me veganism is all about animal rights. I almost exclusively only focus on the animals in my work. If I’m not posting directly about animals, I’m just trying to make content that tries to normalize veganism. However, even then, that is just in service to the animals, hopefully convincing people to go vegan. 

What are your upcoming projects or future plans in the realm of vegan content creation?

Currently I make a lot of vegan related designs on my account and slowly I’m starting to make more videos that aren’t just influencer-esque food reviews. I’m making more videos that are provocative and engaging. I think my goals on the account are to make videos that slowly start to align more with my interests as a narrative filmmaker, as well as more educational videos. Outside of social media, I’d love to eventually make a documentary or narrative feature relating to veganism. 

How do you see the role of vegan advocacy content evolving in the future, and what part do you hope to play in that evolution?

It’s complicated but I think that there will be an overall rise in three different types of advocacy: individual, corporation, and governmental focuses. As well as a need for this to be done through different lenses of approach like health, environmentalism, all in service to the end goal of animal rights.

In regards to focus on individuals, with culture war issues on the rise, I think it could be ultimately a good thing for the animal rights movement. Sure it might embolden particular people to outright reject veganism simply because they view it as a part of the opposition, but at the same time, this form of tribalism will also embolden current non-vegans to adopt veganism for the same reason. Granted this isn’t an ideal reason to go vegan, but the end result is the same and will hopefully lead to a massive increase in vegans. I think it’s then up to particular activists who focus on convincing corporations and governments to make the proper changes, thus essentially forcing the remaining non-vegans to ultimately go vegan. 

I’m not very well versed in law so my goal is to be more focused on the individual and corporate level in the future. 

How do you view the relationship between art and advocacy, particularly in promoting veganism?

I believe art plays an integral part in advocacy, especially in regards to veganism. Art is everywhere. It’s the media we consume, the clothes we buy, the items we collect, the architecture and culture that surround us. So to include advocacy within this can be very influential. Take documentaries for an example. Behind every documentary film is an artist who often not only just shows you the reality of the situation but also gets the audience to truly connect with the animals through storytelling, musical scores, camera angles, etc. Vegan documentary films have been instrumental toward the animal rights movement. 

Can you share any examples of how your content has influenced viewers' perceptions or actions regarding veganism?

I have had people tell me that they’ve gone vegan or are now trying to go vegan due to my content. That’s the most rewarding aspect of my work, to actually have an impact on the movement. To save animal lives. 

What strategies do you find most effective for promoting animal advocacy on social media?

I think there’s a diverse approach of strategies that can be effective on social media. On one hand, videos that show potential hypocrisy in one’s own views can be very impactful and thought provoking. On the other hand, videos that are funny and relatable can help foster a sense of belonging to the vegan community, and the heart of an effective movement is a strong community! 

How do you decide on the content you create and share to maximize its impact?

I just try to make content that I personally love and would love to see. I have so many different interests and I’m always trying to incorporate those interests with a broader message of veganism. I like to change up themes constantly on my account from holidays to camping to the wild west to 90s pizza parties to mid century design, I like to keep things interesting and always changing. My hope is that this will cast a wider net to reach more people and get them interested in veganism. 

How do you handle negative feedback or criticism on social media?

Pretty well I believe. I mentioned loving the engagement between the artist and the audience, this is a part of it and I love it. It often fuels me, motivates me to keep going. 

Veganism stands out from most other movements in that it seems the world is not evenly split on the issue. Typically, movements might see a more balanced division of opinion, but with veganism, it appears that those who oppose the movement constitute the vast majority, potentially up to 90% of the population. Unlike many other movements that often target systems or corporations, veganism also uniquely holds individuals accountable, asserting that their personal actions are morally wrong. This individual focus tends to be more confrontational.

Given this, hostility towards vegans is almost inevitable. Recognizing this helps explain why vegans often face significant criticism and negative reactions. The sheer volume and intensity of backlash can make it seem like the world is against us, because unfortunately for the most part it’s true. Despite this, it doesn't invalidate our ethical stance on animal rights. Understanding this broader context helps me remain committed to advocating for animal rights. Regardless of the hostility, I will continue to stand up for animals because I believe it is the morally right thing to do.

Are there any tools or techniques you use to enhance your social media campaigns?

It seems like engagement is very important to a lot of social media algorithms in order to get your content shown to a lot of people, so I often try to create content that promotes engagement. For an example, I posted a video that went viral a couple years ago. In it I was wearing black nail polish since it was October and I always paint my nails black during the Halloween season. I noticed that a lot of people felt the need to insult me as a male for painting my nails. So recently I decided to paint my nails again for a video to see if they would take the bait and it worked! I got hundreds of comments about being a male who paints his nails and I feel like that engagement really helped boost the video to be pushed out to more people. So that trick helped spread the vegan message by exploiting the ignorant toxic masculinity often displayed by the opposing side. 

What motivates you to continue advocating for animals and/or the environment through social media?

I think it’s that artist/audience engagement that really keeps my interest. To be able to put out a piece and then to engage with people about it is so important to me, it’s just as important as the piece itself. In fact, sometimes it is the piece. The engagement between artist and audience is a form of art, a performance. 

I also can’t forget to mention the community aspect of social media being a motivating force. I think having a space on social media to interact with like-minded people is very important for the movement. We can help each other in so many significant ways. This is especially important for people who live in areas without a strong physical vegan community. As well as for people like me who are more socially anxious and feel more comfortable with a purely online community. 

What advice would you give to aspiring filmmakers/content creators who want to use their work to advocate for animals and the planet?

To look at themselves. How many people, maybe themselves included, were influenced to go vegan through the power of filmmaking/art/media? Your efforts as an artist can and will change people’s minds and will lead to a better world, a world that grows more compassionate for animals day by day. 

How can filmmakers/content creators effectively balance artistic expression with advocacy?

I think the first step is to see animal advocacy as artistic expression. Everything you do advocating for the animals as an artist can fulfill that desire to create. To create change is art.