PETA’s Sexualized Ads Don’t Work
Rebecca Watson over at Skepchick, points out that the infamous “animal rights” group’s ridiculous, over sexualized and often gruesome adds are not only not helping their cause, but are actually backfiring. It turns out that they actually get people to turn against PeTA and make people less sympathetic to their cause. I would be willing to bet that attacking the Mario games and their even more offensive by far “Holocaust on Your Plate” campaign, had a similar effect.
I’m a supporter of animal rights who eats a mostly vegetarian diet (I occasionally eat fish). I support organizations like the Humane Society and the SPCA, and I would support PETA if they didn’t make a habit of lying, misrepresenting scientific data, and using images of dehumanized scantily clad and nude women to get money and attention.
Consider, for instance, this Pamela Anderson ad (NSFW), in which the star’s body is marked up with the names of cuts of beef. This is par for the course in PETA’s marketing: a woman’s body is made the equivalent of dead meat, quite literally and blatantly turning her into an object to be consumed. Even more (purposely) shocking is the ad showing a woman cut in half and hanging from a meat hook (NSFL), while wearing a low-cut camisole for some reason.
