PETA is a jerk. Yes, I know they’ve brought about some positive changes in the meat industry, curbed medical testing on animals and other wonderful things of that nature. But when your brand of activism is kicking dirt in the eyes of the purported bully, you become a bully yourself.
Has anyone seen their advertising over the years? I’d call it a nice blend of dietary guilting and human shaming. That is, they guilt you out of your omnivorous diet while just making you ashamed to be alive, in general.
I think my favorite advertisement is one that ran a few summers back; it’s a picture of a scantily-clad obese woman sitting on a beach, with this caption underneath: “Save the Whales. Lose the Blubber.” I guess when you think about it, this campaign is pretty flawless. With all of the people that probably killed themselves after this ad ran, I’m sure the percentage of meat-eaters in our nation has dropped exponentially. For the orcas!
When they’re not inducing eating disorders, PETA’s advertising team brings their fiery brand of justice to the cancer ward. Well, “brought;” this fiasco happened over a decade ago, but it really should’ve tipped off the universe that something was very amiss with this organization.
When former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani was diagnosed with prostate cancer back in 2000, PETA launched what is perhaps its most insensitive and ill-devised campaign to date. Spoofing the then-famous
“Got Milk?” ads, PETA plastered billboards with Giuliani’s face donning a milk mustache, with the following caption: “Got prostate cancer? Drinking milk contributes to prostate cancer.”
You know, PETA, I’m not even going to refute the basis for the correlation drawn here. Recent studies have shown a pretty significant link between dairy consumption and increased risk of prostate cancer. What I will refute is every other aspect of this campaign, which can best be described as “inhumane” — you know, like when something is exceptionally cruel for no real reason, not unlike the cock-fighting, seal-clubbing, dog-skinning practices that your organization condemns without the slightest hint of irony, because, you know, you’d need some self-awareness for that. But don’t feel too bad. It was only a person, after all.
So let us conclude with a final cheer for PETA, where “people” are left totally out of the equation.
