PETA's latest assault on the dignity of humans

Adland

You know the drill:

1. Post offensive, sexually provocative ad
2.
3. Save animals

Or at least that's how it goes in the minds of the people behind PETA ads. They seem to be under the impression that there's "no such thing as bad publicity." Well, there is.

If you're a feminist, and you support this organization, you are suffering from something called "cognitive dissonance." Look it up. And make a decision as to whether promoting veganism by degrading humans is really OK with your human rights beliefs.

I won't comment further on this garbage. "Dabitch" at Adland already explained it all.

PETA is sexually exploiting 16-year-olds now

Via PETA

That's 16-year-old Samia Finnerty, musician and daughter of actress Kathy Najimy, posing provocatively with another dumb double-entendre.

PETA calls her their "youngest pinup" and states:

PETA normally waits until people turn 18 before asking them to star in a "provocative" campaign, but not this time. Sixteen-year-old singer-songwriter Samia Najimy Finnerty stars in our new "Vegans Go All the Way" ad. 

Classy. I also question the social marketing strategy of dissing vegetarians as being some kind of lesser vegans. Way to alienate a large proportion of your base, PETA!

McDonald's goes veg

How can a hamburger chain survive in a culture where beef is taboo for 80% of the population? Easy — go vegetarian.

McDonald's India, which already has lots of meatless items on its menu, is opening a vegetarian-only location near the Golden Temple in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in northern India. (Although some Sikh people eat meat, the consumption of it is prohibited near the temple.)

So what will they serve there? BBC says McDonald's India's signature dish in the country is the McAloo Tikki burger, which accounts for 25% of total sales. Based on the traditional snack, aloo tikki, it uses a spiced potato fritter as a patty.

McDonald's India also has a veggie burger made with a fried bread, potatoes, peas and carrot patty, and a "McSpicy Paneer" that is — literally — a cheeseburger. (The patty is all cheese.)

It ain't health food, but some of it sounds pretty good.

PETA sexploitation ads: Coming on a fire truck near you?

Add caption

Only if you live in Baltimore.

According to AdFreak, a Baltimore city councillor has proposed selling ad space on city vehicles to add an new revenue stream. PETA has already mocked up their own custom ad for the occasion, claiming that seeing a half-naked woman and a bad pun "will drive Baltimore residents to PETA's heart-healthy vegan recipes that will keep them firing on all cylinders."

Yeah, whatever.

Why is this Playboy Bunny's lettuce bikini so horribly photoshopped? #FdAdFriday

I suppose the combination of model Sheridyn Fisher's body heat and the studio lights would wilt lettuce pretty quickly, but come on, PETA.

Of course, it's not as if the Playboy Bunny has never been photoshopped before. But it's probably the most awkward and least fun photo editing job anyone's ever had with one of her photos.

You can see the "real" lettuce swimwear in the video version here:



Via Adrants.

Kellog's Frosted Beefs

Via Flikr

Last week, I blogged about crushed beetles in Starbucks "vegan" smoothies.

Today, my friend and fellow blogger Neil (who is a vegetarian) found something interesting in the Kellog's UK product site.

It seems you can search cereals and other products by ingredient.

Here's "Beef":

Wait, what?

From the Frosted Wheats ingredients page:

"Shredded Wholewheat, Sugar, Humectant (Sorbitol), Beef Gelatin, Niacin, Iron, Vitamin B6, Riboflavin (B2), Thiamin (B1), Folic Acid, Vitamin B12."

Gelatine ("it's made from bones, you know") is a common food additive and a real pest to vegetarians.

But wait! There's more.

He also searched "pork":

Yep. Rice Crispies Squares have pig in them:

"Toasted Rice Cereal (35%) (Rice, Sugar, Salt, Barley Malt Flavouring, Niacin, Iron, Vitamin B6, Riboflavin (B2), Thiamin (B1), Folic Acid, Vitamin B12), Marshmallow (33%) (Glucose Syrup, Sugar, Pork Gelatin, Flavouring), Fructose, Vegetable Oil, Invert Sugar Syrup, Glucose Syrup, Humectant (Glycerol), Flavouring (Contains Milk), Emulsifier (E472e, E472a), Antioxidant (E320)."

I'm not a vegetarian, and I have no problem with animal products in my foods. But many people are, and do. Including, ironically, health nut John Harvey Kellogg, who once said:

“A dead cow or sheep lying in the pasture is recognized as carrion. The same sort of carcass dressed and hung up in a butcher’s stall passes as food.”

The UK site even has a whole section recommending vegetarian diets for young children.

The Canadian and US sites aren't as easy to navigate by ingredient, and searches for beef or pork take you to meatloaf recipes.

However, I did find this on the American site:

What is the source of gelatin in your products? 

Gelatin, which is used in some of our products to provide texture, is derived from either beef or pork. Products containing pork gelatin include Kellogg cereal products with marshmallow additives (i.e., Kellogg's® Marshmallow Froot Loops cereal and Kellogg's Smorz® cereal) and all varieties of Kellogg's® Rice Krispies Treats® Squares. Products containing beef gelatin include all varieties of Kellogg's® Frosted Pop-Tarts®, Kellogg's® Frosted Mini-Wheats® cereal, Kellogg's® Rice Krispies Treats cereal, and the Kellogg's® Fruit-Flavored Snacks that contain gelatin. 

The information provided here is intended to act as a general guide only. We ask that you always check the Nutrition Facts on the side panel of each of our packages to determine if the product contains any ingredient(s) that you want to avoid.

The moral of the story? Animal products show up in the strangest places. When you buy packaged foods, always read the ingredients list. (And always be suspicious of terms like "natural" flavour or colour.) If you're a vegan, vegetarian, Hindu, Jew or Muslim, you may be surprised how often you're breaking your vows.

Do vegetarians buy BBQs?

Of course some do. You can do amazing things with grilled vegetables and mushrooms.

But this flyer, from a local distributor for BBQing.com, seems to be betting not only that its potential customers are not vegetarians, but also that they hate PETA.

Now, I am not a vegetarian and I do dislike PETA's marketing tactics and extremism. This brand is probably making a smart strategic move by targeting guys (let's face it) who eat lots of meat and like to feel obnoxious about it. Canadian Tire and Home Depot can't do this, because they have to appeal to everyone. These guys can afford to be assholes.

By the way, if the "mashed potatoes" gag seems familiar it's because this billboard has been floating around the internet forever:

But if you're going to wear that statement around, you might as well get the original.

"Barrista! There are bugs in my vegan smoothie!"

At least they spelled "flavour" the proper way.

I don't know why vegans even bother with fast food. Remember when everyone was outraged by beef tallow in McDonald's fries? More recently, there was concern over hidden bacon in Chipotle's pinto beans.

Part of the problem is that there are two divergent customer demands: on one hand, people want junk food made with as many "natural" ingredients as possible; on the other are personal food restrictions based on religion, philosophy or allergy.

The latest big brand to be torn by this tension is Starbucks.

Via Tumblr

Jezebel explains that after "customers insisted that Starbucks start to use natural ingredients whenever possible," the coffee chain started using cochineal extract instead of chemical dye to make its strawberry soy smoothies pinker. (They also add lycopene, the pigment from tomatoes.)

Cochineal extract is certainly natural. To make it, you grind up a bunch of these guys:

Via this blog

The resulting pigment, known as carmine, has many industrial uses. And it's common in food.

Wikipedia says:

"Carmine is used as a food dye in many different products such as juices, ice cream, yogurt, and candy, and as a dye in cosmetic products such as eyeshadow and lipstick. Although principally a red dye, it is found in many foods that are shades of red, pink, and purple. As a food dye it has been known to cause severe allergic reactions and anaphylactic shock in some people. 

Food products containing carmine-based dye may be a concern for people allergic to carmine, or people choosing not to consume any or certain animals, such as vegetarians, vegans, and followers of religions with dietary law (e.g., kashrut in Judaism and halaal in Islam)."

The true nature of the ingredient went viral in the veggie community when a vegan Starbucks employee leaked it to This Dish is Veg. There was soon a petition up at Change.org which so far has 2,427 signatures.

Starbucks isn't budging yet, though. Corporate spokesman Jim Olson told msnbc.com, “We certainly respect and understand the interest this is getting, but it is a very common ingredient in foods and juices and beverages.”

There's actually a very simple solution to this problem: leave out the dye, and expect customers to accept a paler pink smoothie. Hell, I make my own for breakfast all the time. Strawberries add their own "natural" colour. It just isn't the bright pink that people seem to think they want.

Do you think that such a thing is possible?

Cottage cheese thighs?

"Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine," who are basically a vegan advocacy group, are hating on cheese again.

These billboards were recently erected outside Albany, New York, in dairy country.

Strangely, this is part of a campaign to have cheese removed from (or reduced in) school lunches.

"PCRM president Neal Barnard, M.D., has written a letter to members of the Albany city school board, asking the city to cut down on dairy products served in schools to help students reduce the risk of childhood obesity.
...
School lunches in Albany include an abundance of cheesy foods. The city’s high school menu, for example, includes dairy- and fat-loaded offerings such as chicken parmesan and lasagna with three different types of cheese. Cheese pizzas are available daily."

I won't defend the nutritional value of crappy school lunches. But as an ad guy, I find PCRM's ads as useless as ever. Eating too much fat makes you fat? Gee... thanks. Quite the medical breakthrough there. Targeting one food as the enemy, however, oversimplifies the issue.

Tip via Sociological Images

PETA wants Texans to rename their town along vegan lines

No shit:

Amarillo Texas -- PETA today [Nov 14] sent a letter to Pat Carson, the mayor of Turkey, Texas, urging him to change the name of his town to "Tofurky" in time for Thanksgiving. In the letter, PETA points out that turkeys suffer virtually every day of their lives, right up to and including their slaughter, and that eating turkey and other meats is an invitation to serious health problems. Tofurky, on the other hand, is a delicious and "meaty" comfort food, and it comes without the suffering endured by turkeys. To sweeten the pot, PETA has offered to provide the entire town with a full-course vegan holiday feast if the name change goes through. 

"Thanksgiving is murder on turkeys," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "By changing its name to 'Tofurky,' Turkey would send a clear message that delicious, savory mock meat is an easy way to celebrate without causing suffering—and give a bird something to be thankful for."

What's really awesome about this stunt is not the disingenuousness of the appeal, it's the reactions of the insulted townsfolk:



Nice troll, PETA.

Now, I'm sure you're wondering who Bob Wills is:



Tip via Newser

A PETA campaign as tasteless as microwaved pork chops

If you haven't heard the awful story from Dayton, Ohio, of China Arnold killing her month-old baby in the microwave, consider yourself lucky. And I'm sorry to have brought it to your attention.

But then PETA, in yet another show of misplaced priorities, created this ad for veganism:

Nobody media company will place it anywhere, of course.

PETA's comment:

“We understand why our message — that most of the animals killed for human consumption are innocent babies who feel pain and fear just as humans do — might be upsetting,” PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said in a Tuesday email. “We encourage anyone who is troubled by the comparison between a baby human and a baby pig to clear their conscience by adopting a humane, vegan diet.”

This isn't the first time the organization has cashed in on human misery, and unfortunately it probably won't be the last.

But why? While some people still naively believe that "there's no such thing as bad publicity", there really is. Does anyone believe that campaigns like this really make the PETA brand more palatable to "soft" animal rights supporters, vegetarians and vegans?

What I'd really like to see happen is for someone to confront some of the celebrities who are all-too-happy to lend their celebrity to the organization — like Pamela Anderson, Joaquin Phoenix, Anjelica Huston, Iggy Pop or Alicia Silverstone with the question of whether they really believe in these marketing tactics.

"I'm getting naked for exploiting dead babies!"

Because PR cuts both ways, you know...