Constructing Guilt-Free Indulgence: Discourses of Plant-Based and Cultivated Meat Marketing

This paper examines how plant-based and cultivated meat are constructed in the promotional web discourse of twelve alternative-protein companies. Using corpus-assisted discourse analysis, it explores how brands combine sensory pleasure with ethical responsibility. Both product categories promote guilt-free indulgence, but through different strategies: plant-based brands normalize novelty through taste, familiarity, and lifestyle, whereas cultivated-meat brands legitimize it through science, safety, and animal-welfare claims. The findings show how marketing makes ethical consumption pleasurable, desirable, and compatible with eating practices.