Animal rights activist group PETA doesn’t know the distinction between promoting its cause and assaulting consumers with propaganda.
Previous campaigns of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals include encouraging consumers not to support companies who test products on animals, throwing red paint on innocent passerby wearing fur and petitions for better treatment of animals.
At heart, PETA has a good mission: stop animal cruelty.
However, the way it goes about achieving its goals is bombarding consumers and potential donors with graphic images. Some campaigns have been more innocuous, but in past years, PETA has become overzealous in its methods.
The nonprofit organization has plans to create peta.xxx, a porn site made to lure traffic before assaulting the viewer with images of skinned and killed animals.
“Shock advertising is where you try to shock consumers in order to make an impact,” said Dr. Mary Curren, chair of the marketing department. “It is used to cut through the ad clutter and grab your attention. We are bombarded with so much information on a regular basis that we have to filter what information or stimuli we will consider.”
PETA has taken issue with many groups and companies that practice less-than-humane practices toward animals, such as the fur and meat industries. Information about these and more disturbing facts, as well as graphic photos and videos are on PETA’s website. It encourages product boycotts, petitions and involvement with animals.
“(PETA members) have good intentions, but the extreme ways they promote and show awareness is a little over the top,” said Jennifer Cheung, a CTVA senior who has been a vegan for six years. “Instead of getting respect from people, they make vegans and vegetarians look bad at times by their extreme tactics.”
Cheung agrees with PETA’s mission but not its methods. “Most dedicated vegans do not like PETA,” she said. “There are many other websites and organizations out there that promote the education and animal cruelty awareness in nonviolent and (less) extreme ways.”
PETA does not know where to draw the line between effective advertising and assaulting. Though they have good intentions, its strategies are deterrents and only serve to make the public dislike the organization.
Excessively graphic images and tactics only serve to lessen PETA’s integrity. If someone is looking for animal porn, he or she will not be scared away by pictures of mauled and disfigured animals.
