COMMENTS: 178
PETA Ad Dubbed Too Sexy for Super Bowl
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Update: There is a new interview with a PETA Campaign Coordinator at the end of this story.
Hot, sexy, steamy ... vegetables? PETA's latest ad, "Veggie Love," which combines scantily clad supermodels getting intimate with bushels of broccoli and bundles of asparagus, has people talking.
The ad is as horrifying and insulting to women (and men, for that matter) as any Victoria's Secret or Budweiser ad, the catch being that instead of trying to sell overpriced undergarments or a drink that increases your likelihood of calling up your ex, PETA's ad is touting the positive effects of vegetarianism. Namely the sexy positive effects.
"Studies show," the ad reads as a hard-core rock song plays and the women frolic with foliage, "vegetarians have better sex." (Actually, the ad is really just knocking meat eating, as the studies they are talking about link meat consumption to impotence.)
Watch it:
"Veggie Love," PETA's Web site says, was for a coveted Super Bowl ad slot, so the hypersexed imagery could be taken as a tongue-in-cheek poke at all the other football adverts that try to draw a correlation between really hot babes and Dr. Scholl's insoles. But even if that is the case, it doesn't change the fact that PETA is objectifying women to get attention. (Yes. I know. Attention such as articles like this one. I am aware.)
This isn't the first time PETA has treated women like meat to get people to stop eating it. PETA has a long history of using "conventionally attractive" women as sexual tools to get their messages across. And "Veggie Love" is no different. Many more intelligent (and more gender appropriate) authors have tackled this issue. The main point with this ad is that it is offensive. To be strictly equal the ad could have at least objectified a few dudes.
Seriously PETA, you couldn't find one guy with a smoking hot six-pack to make out with a potato in the buff? More appropriately, PETA should have found a way to express its message that doesn't include any fantasy models enacting pornographic images with throbbing music in the background. I don't care how tongue in cheek PETA thinks its being. Super Bowl or no Super Bowl, "Veggie Love" is sexist.
But sex(ism) sells; and this ad is no different. Despite being rejected by NBC for a Super Bowl ad slot, "Veggie Love" is being talked about by everyone from Whoopi Goldberg on "The View" to the New York Times (Whoopi actually went as far as to re-enact the ad with a lettuce head because ABC refused to let "The View" air "Veggie Love").
This type of buzz is, of course, what PETA set out to accomplish with its risqué ad. Thanks to the Internet, a new type of marketing is quickly becoming popular. Called by some "parasite" or "leech-media tactics," the concept is simple: Create buzz for your product or message by creating a video that is controversial or provocative, release it online, watch it scream across the intertubes, and soon thereafter the corporate media.
"Veggie Love" is another in a long list of viral videos, but these new types of videos push merchandise or ideas, not just hamsters on pianos or dramatic chipmunks.
PETA isn't the first to use leech-media tactics though. In fact, these types of videos were about the only thing Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign was good at. The campaign made sure that every offensive smear "ad" it created about Obama got covered by the corporate media outlets. "Celeb," "The One" and many others were videos that the campaign never actually aired on television because it didn't need to.
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Comments are closed-
Posted by: Nietzsche’s Bastard on Jan 29, 2009 12:26 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» RE: Children do not need to be exposed to this smut.
Posted by: Pegaleg
» RE: Children do not need to be exposed to this smut.
Posted by: dlibby
» RE: Children do not need to be exposed to this smut.
Posted by: kungfuma
» RE: Children do not need to be exposed to this smut.
Posted by: masthead
» RE: Children do not need to be exposed to this smut.
Posted by: kungfuma
» Peta does not represent...
Posted by: SolarSiStar
Comments are closed-
Posted by: Unapologetic Liberal on Jan 29, 2009 1:22 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Given their hypocritical behavior and their frequently contradictory statements, coupled with their irrational and sensationalist PR campaigns, it seems abundantly evident that PETA's primary purpose is to make lots of money for its executive management.
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» PETA has gotten rich from its donations - from a vegetarian
Posted by: georgiaorwell
» RE: PETA has gotten rich from its donations - from a vegetarian
Posted by: SolarSiStar
» PETA execs don't make big salaries... They're not in it for the money, for sure.
Posted by: TwinsFanatic
» RE: Should we be surprised? It's PETA, after all.
Posted by: cmaciain
» RE: Should we be surprised? It's PETA, after all.
Posted by: Unapologetic Liberal
» RE: Should we be surprised? It's PETA, after all.
Posted by: Gisele
» For the last thirty some odd years human insulin has been grown using...
Posted by: ABetterFuture
» Pig insulin
Posted by: BlueTigress
» RE: Should we be surprised? It's PETA, after all.
Posted by: Br@vehe@rt
» Adopt them !
Posted by: TomOfMaine
Comments are closed-
Posted by: mercianomad on Jan 29, 2009 2:28 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
So they make a lowbrow ad with sex as its selling point and aim it directly at the center of the bellcurve in the USA. If McDonald's or Nestle can pervert the family image to sell tainted products, PETA can pervert the sex one just like any beer advert does.
Personally, I hate it all and I'm sick of advertising more than almost anything on this earth save maybe cars being literally everywhere, but that is the game one has to play now in this country, now that nearly everyone in it has been stupidified and made shallow by advertising and marketing beyond any acceptable cultural limit.
If you've got something to sell, be it an ideology or a product, your best bet is to make your ad as dumb and vapid as possible, preferably with some ultra-hot model woman front and center moving her hips and giving alluring "I want you" eyes, some slick groovy tune, and soap-clean post-edited camera work. Sickening, but true.
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» RE: I can't agree. The ads that stick with people are not the sexy, sexist ones.
Posted by: Quicksilver
» RE: I can't agree. The ads that stick with people are not the sexy, sexist ones.
Posted by: mercianomad
» RE: It's consonant with advertising in general
Posted by: kungfuma
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Posted by: villager1 on Jan 29, 2009 2:34 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
We allow these money lovers to destroy our kid's minds, women's rights and our integrity, with this disgusting advertising. There is no hope for us anymore - we are all paying the price for our lack of integrity and laying ourselves open to abuse by these characterless idiots.
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» RE: villager
Posted by: dlibby
» RE: Neither are they slaughtered in their youth for their tenderness
Posted by: channing
» RE: Neither are they slaughtered in their youth for their tenderness
Posted by: kungfuma
» RE: Neither are they slaughtered in their youth for their tenderness
Posted by: kungfuma
» Acepahlic animals
Posted by: BlueTigress
» RE: villager
Posted by: kungfuma
» RE: villager
Posted by: koolwoman
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Posted by: jnatejr on Jan 29, 2009 3:04 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» RE: reader
Posted by: helenwheels
» RE: reader
Posted by: EncinoM
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Posted by: diablobluz on Jan 29, 2009 3:19 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» RE: c'mon!
Posted by: Markson
» RE: c'mon!
Posted by: kungfuma
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Posted by: mbruton on Jan 29, 2009 3:21 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» I care.
Posted by: heid
» RE: I care.
Posted by: mbruton
» RE: Who Cares
Posted by: dlibby
» RE: Who Cares
Posted by: mbruton
» RE: Who Cares
Posted by: kungfuma
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Posted by: kepstein7777 on Jan 29, 2009 3:40 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The real question ought to be whether these things work, and what demographic they're going after. Are guys who are into football and babes who do naughty things with vegetables prime candidates for conversion?
"Dude! Check out this ad on YouTube that they wouldn't show during the Super Bowl. Pretty hot, eh?...You know what?...Instead of hot wings and pork rinds, we should have sliced veggies and dairy-free dip at the party this year."
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» RE: PETA
Posted by: dlibby
» RE: PETA
Posted by: Xynyx
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Posted by: cmaciain on Jan 29, 2009 4:25 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
**eye roll**
What a bunch of hypocrites!
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Posted by: beandang on Jan 29, 2009 5:38 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
RT
Privacy Center
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» RE: Idiots
Posted by: lelectra
» RE: A plague on both their houses
Posted by: Xynyx
» RE: Idiots
Posted by: Crazy H
» Don't click on that link!
Posted by: GuitarBill
» How is bigotry good for "us?"
Posted by: Markson
» RE: Idiots
Posted by: dwilliamsamh
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Posted by: rimchamp77 on Jan 29, 2009 5:59 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» RE: JT Barrie
Posted by: wwittman
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Posted by: 876 on Jan 29, 2009 6:04 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
God, what a cop out isn’t that what they all say? Just pretend you’re making fun of the next guy, everyone blames each other and then they go on to insist that we the people want this. Actually I don’t want it. It is gratuitous. There is a time and place for sex and it is not in a living room full of relatives or friends at a Sunday gathering. I think the real fact is these supposed creative people who make ads for a living actually aren’t that creative at all as evidenced by their total lack of any ideas besides naked women or even children to sell all things from designer underwear to vegetarianism. God get a life, it gets old at some point. I don’t need sex shoved in my face 24/7.
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» RE: What a cop out
Posted by: Quicksilver
» RE: What a cop out
Posted by: pelican beak
» RE: What a cop out
Posted by: Quicksilver
» RE: What a cop out
Posted by: pelican beak
Comments are closed-
Posted by: JoshuaLudd on Jan 29, 2009 6:51 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This ad was not meant to be aired. It was meant to be rejected, so that there was controversy over it... far more than if it had aired. Now everyone and his/her brother will be looking up the ad online to see what all the fuss is about. Along with their constant parade of nude women... celebrities if they can get them... in cages slathered in body paint to protest circuses, PETA wants to talk about ethics. PETA has no ethics. They are media manipulators whodo a disservice to those who stand against both animal cruelty AND this kind of sexist, exploitive tripe in advertising and on television.
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» RE: classic peta tactic.
Posted by: georgiaorwell
» RE: classic peta tactic.
Posted by: maddogmarley
» RE: classic peta tactic.
Posted by: Gisele
» RE: classic peta tactic.
Posted by: maddogmarley
» RE: who was exploited in the making of this ad?
Posted by: rfrancis@godisdead.com
» RE: who was exploited? MEN!
Posted by: Crazy H
» RE: who was exploited? MEN!
Posted by: kungfuma
» every vegetarian who has to have their convictions trivialized with this shit, to start with.
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
» RE: classic peta tactic.
Posted by: munchkinpup
Comments are closed-
Posted by: chloelin on Jan 29, 2009 7:02 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» I would say its actually...
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
» You've been a very, very bad boy Joshua
Posted by: 2dogarage
» Well...
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
Comments are closed-
Posted by: lelectra on Jan 29, 2009 7:45 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» Well, I care, and maybe you should, too!
Posted by: georgiaorwell
» Time for a new hobby!
Posted by: BlueTigress
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Posted by: monkeywrench on Jan 29, 2009 8:16 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When she suh-lides that bunch of asparagus southward, or does her intimate thing with a pumpkin, it just makes me want to get ... uh ... healthy ...
- - - -
According to some well beyond PETA, even plants have feelings – so, has anyone considered how the asparagus feels about being used in this way?
And even more disturbing: these veggies are dead, so does that make the acts in the commercial necrophilia?
This, obviously, is a controversy that will not go away ...
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» RE: Oooh ...
Posted by: kungfuma
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Posted by: billdake@sbcglobal.net on Jan 29, 2009 8:45 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Treating animals with respect and allowing them a proper living space with the abilty of liveing a good life is the best we can do for them. In nature animals usually lead stressfull lives being tramatized and eatened by preditors. We need laws to protect their comfort and to provide as normal a life as possible for them and without the constant threat from predators.
That's what Peta should be all about, not depriving people of nutrious food or causing the animal deaths and chaos that would be the case if we were all vegatarians.
There is nothing wrong with Sex. Too bad we as a society cannot handle it.
Bill Dake
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» RE: If we were all Vegatarians
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
» RE: If we were all Vegatarians
Posted by: helenahanbasquet
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Posted by: rfrancis@godisdead.com on Jan 29, 2009 8:47 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Sex and sexiness doesn't not equal sexist.
Saying things like women belong in the kitchen cooking for men is sexist.
Saying women shouldn't be President because during their periods they are too emotionally unstable is sexist.
Showing scantily clad women playing with vegetables is not sexist.
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» RE: When Did Sex Become Sexist?
Posted by: Gisele
» RE: When Did Sex Become Sexist? > tasteless?
Posted by: Aureantes
» RE: When Did Sex Become Sexist?
Posted by: rfrancis@godisdead.com
» RE: When Did Sex Become Sexist?
Posted by: munchkinpup
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Posted by: 2dogarage on Jan 29, 2009 9:20 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Today the author gives us a lead-in that the ad is exploitative etc. and the choir is now singing a different song, mostly agreeing with his characterization which seems different from how he introduced the article yesterday.
I wonder if this is some kind of experiment by Alternet? Anyway I've decided to copy my comments from yesterday since the conversation is ongoing even though yesterday's thread seems to have been terminated. I want to add that I was in the minority on this subject yesterday but today find myself a member of the majority it seems but I wonder what caused the shift?
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» Using meat to sell veggies
Posted by: 2dogarage
» I thought it was offensive
Posted by: 2dogarage
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Posted by: veggiegrrrl on Jan 29, 2009 9:43 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» Animals don't take pleasure in sadism and suffering.
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
» RE: > The joy of the kill
Posted by: Aureantes
» I said kill.. not eat.
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
» Not everyone is vegetarian
Posted by: 2dogarage
Comments are closed-
Posted by: SkeeterVT1 on Jan 29, 2009 9:48 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The fact is, 85 percent of Americans who are vegetarians are women; every effort to date to get men to switch to a vegetarian diet has been met with fierce resistance.
Much of that resistance is rooted in homophobia; it's no secret that a disproportionately high percentage -- perhaps even a majority -- of male vegetarians in America are gay and bisexual men.
NBC might, therefore, have had a another reason to reject PETA's ad.
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» RE: Hitler was a vegetarian.
Posted by: Jasonix
» RE: Hitler was a vegetarian.--WRONG!
Posted by: cmaciain
» RE: Hitler was a vegetarian.--WRONG!
Posted by: Jasonix
» Guess they would have had to reject all germans, volkswagon, facial hair...
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
» RE: Hitler was a vegetarian.
Posted by: Sonic Origami
» RE: Hitler was a vegetarian.
Posted by: Jasonix
» RE: Hitler WASN'T a vegetarian.
Posted by: vasumurti
» All Sikh, Jain, Hindu, or Buddhist men are not gay
Posted by: Shankari46
» it's no secret that a disproportionately high percentage -- perhaps even a majority -- of male veget
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
» RE: Most Male Super Bowl Viewers Would Have ....reached for more hot wings
Posted by: Aureantes
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Posted by: veggiegrrrl on Jan 29, 2009 10:00 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Posted by: lynmarenjensen on Jan 29, 2009 10:10 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» Not all publicity is GOOD
Posted by: 2dogarage
» I didn't even bother....
Posted by: Aureantes
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Posted by: vasumurti on Jan 29, 2009 10:26 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In her 1991 book, The Sexual Politics of Meat, Carol J. Adams notes that throughout human history, beginning with the hunter-gatherer tribes, meat has been associated with male violence and masculinity, people with power, the aristocracy, etc.
Meat is associated with male virility, whereas vegetable and nonmeat foods are viewed as women’s food. "Meat is a symbol of patriarchy" writes Adams bluntly. She cites a fictional illustration from Mary McCarthy’s Birds of America. Miss Scott, a vegetarian, is invited to a NATO general’s house for Thanksgiving. Her refusal of turkey angers the general.
According to Adams, "Male belligerence in this area is not limited to fictional military men. Men who batter women have often used the absence of meat as a pretext for violence against women."
Adams compares "The Rape of Animals" to "the Butchering of Women," as well as "Sexual Violence and Meat Eating." She quotes the organizer of a "Bunny Bop" in which rabbits are killed by clubs, feet, stones, etc. as saying, "What would all these rabbit hunters be doing if they weren’t letting off all this steam? I’ll tell you what they'd be doing. They’d be drinking and carousing and beating their wives."
The Feminists for Animal Rights newsletter (Vol. VI, Nos. 1-2, 1991) cites EarthSave as stating that taxpayer subsidies to the livestock industry in California for 1991 totaled $24 million, while the yearly budget for child welfare was only $125,000.
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» RE: Moon-bat bullsh*t
Posted by: Jasonix
» Despite an absence of meat...
Posted by: morticia
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Posted by: T0M on Jan 29, 2009 10:38 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
They probably receive their funding (which seems enormous) from Gillette.
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Posted by: Elmowilcox on Jan 29, 2009 8:31 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As to these beautiful women being (ab)used for Superbowl ads to sell things and why Budweiser doesn't choose to advertise with steamy-hot men.....it's marketing, stupid.
Given that there are exceptions, of the billion or so people that watch the Superbowl, what percentage are women that would want to both drink Budweiser AND have it sold to them by male models? I would venture it's a much smaller percentage than the number of men that guzzle this swill and love to see scantily clad supermodels, and as Superbowl advertising comes at a premium, companies have to reach their constituency in a cost effective manner, no?
I suppose it would be much less offensive if the smokin' hot women were being chased around by beer-weilding Fabios in banana hammocks? You know, so that all sides are represented. I think it's funny that we progressives have such a conservative streak in us, beauty is beauty. It's been flaunted for one thing or another since the dawn of time. It's a fact of life.
Beautiful people are nice to look at. Prudes and feminists are the only people that have a problem with it. I won't even include unattractive people in that statement, because there's plenty of unattractive folks around that enjoy them some supermodels, both male and female.
I do understand that a woman doesn't necessarily want to see another woman in her underwear, the only thing that "offends" me about male supermodels in Speedos is not wanting to see a guy's junk, so I can understand that aspect. But it doesn't bother me much either, I've got this magic wand called a remote that instantly changes the picture to something else, and then back when I'm sure the threat has passed. It's fucking amazing stuff. I would recommend one to anyone that is offended by anything that may pop up on their television screen, some TVs even come with them!!!
If you're looking for a platform or something to complain about, complain about the number of pharma ads plastered on television. It's no surprise the number of TV shows that involve hospitals, Pfizer and Wyeth et al are probably funding 75% of television nowadays. THAT, sir, is ridiculous. Right now, I've got COPD, depression, high blood pressure, restless leg syndrome blah blah and blah.
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Posted by: doctorsquared on Jan 29, 2009 10:44 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Posted by: Sonic Origami on Jan 29, 2009 10:53 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Facts: several women are taking part in filming a commercial with only underwear on; they are playing with vegetables with sexual allusions.
Yeah, you are right: this is the end of the world and PETA are war criminals!
First of all, these women took place in the filming without force, with their free will. The author obviously assumes these women were very stupid, because they were (allegedly) extremely abused without even noticing it.
The fact is that nobody has suffered, nobody was hurt and nobody was abused. Quite contrary to how non-human animals are being treated so that humans could have meat for dinner. They were tortured, abused and killed in most horrible ways. Without their consent, of course!
It seems that showing naked (or better, half-naked) human body is insulting and evil!??? This is nonsense! Where are we? Is this some fundamentalist pseudo-leftist sect or what?
Tell you what: there is absolutely nothing wrong with (consensual) sex, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with (consensual) nakedness!
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» RE: This is not sexism! The author is speciesist!
Posted by: powerofbelief
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Posted by: vasumurti on Jan 29, 2009 11:08 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Half the water consumed in the U.S. goes to irrigate land growing feed and fodder for livestock. Huge amounts of water are used to wash away their excrement. U.S. livestock produce 20 times as much excrement as does the entire human population; creating sewage which is 10 to several hundred times more concentrated than raw domestic sewage. Animal wastes cause 10 times more water pollution than the U.S. human population; the meat industry causes 3 times as much harmful organic water pollution than the rest of the nation's industries combined. Meat producers, the number one industrial polluters in our nation, contribute to half the water pollution in the United States.
Joanna Macy, author of Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age, depicts America moving towards a vegan diet in her foreword to Diet for a New America:
"The effects on our physical health are immediate. The incidence of cancer and heart attack, the nation's biggest killers, drops precipitously. So do many other diseases now demonstrably and causally linked to consumption of animal proteins and fats, such as osteoporosis...
"The social, ecological, and economic consequences, as we Americans turn away from animal food products, are equally remarkable. We find that the grain we previously fed to fatten livestock can now feed five times the U.S. population; so we have become able to alleviate malnutrition and hunger on a worldwide scale...
"The great forests of the world, that we had been decimating for grazing purposes, begin to grow again. Oxygen-producing trees are no longer sacrificed for cholesterol-producing steaks.
"The water crisis eases. As we stop raising and grinding up cattle for hamburgers, we discover that ranching and farm factories had been the major drain on our water resources. The amount now available for irrigation and hydroelectric power doubles. Meanwhile, the change in diet frees over 90% of the fossil fuel previously used to produce food. With this liberation of water energy and fossil fuel energy, our reliance on oil imports declines, as does the rationale for building nuclear power plants..."
Joanna Macy admits, "This scenario is wildly, absurdly utopian. It is also clearly the way we are meant to live, built to live." What could possibly make it a reality? "It is this very book!"
Paul McCartney says, "If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you could do. It's staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty. Let's do it! Linda was right. Going veggie is the single best idea for the new century."
Roberta Kalechofsky of Jews for Animal Rights says:
"Merely by ceasing to eat meat
Merely by practicing restraint
We have the power to end a painful industry
"We do not have to bear arms to end this evil
We do not have to contribute money
We do not have to sit in jail or go to
meetings or demonstrations or
engage in acts of civil disobedience
"Most often, the act of repairing the world,
of healing mortal wounds,
is left to heroes and tzaddikim (holy people)
Saints and people of unusual discipline
"But here is an action every mortal can
perform--surely it is not too difficult!"
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» There! Yes! YOU!
Posted by: nen
» nen- you make a great point, of course....
Posted by: veggiegrrrl
» RE: Gee, the Indians didn't get it right after millennia, but John Robbin's nailed it...
Posted by: Jasonix
» Let's keep the racist Remark out of this Please
Posted by: Shankari46
» RE: No racism, just fact
Posted by: Jasonix
» RE: Oh, and about racism...
Posted by: Jasonix
» India produces.....
Posted by: morticia
» RE: India produces.....
Posted by: Jasonix
» RE: India produces.....
Posted by: morticia
» RE: India produces.....
Posted by: Jasonix
» RE: India produces.....
Posted by: morticia
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Posted by: logansafi on Jan 29, 2009 12:05 PM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» RE: Male pseudo-feminists like the author of this commentary against PETA's ad are utterly humorless!
Posted by: powerofbelief
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Posted by: Gravitas on Jan 29, 2009 12:44 PM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I have said it before and I will say it again. PETA could care less about animals. They are just using the issue to get attention for themselves. They are messed up souls wounded by humanity that are just using the animal rights cause to work out their own issues.
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» RE: Yuck
Posted by: Sonic Origami
» RE: Yuck
Posted by: TheLimit
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Posted by: Alternutty on Jan 29, 2009 12:54 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
NOM NOM NOM.
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Posted by: Shankari46 on Jan 29, 2009 1:13 PM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I had to drop PETA on my myspace, because of all the offensive pictures they posted. I had to friend up with a more low key vegetarian group.
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» RE: Like it or Not the Biggest Lot of Vegetarians. . .
Posted by: Aureantes
» RE: PETA isn't a vegetarian group
Posted by: TheLimit
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Posted by: James W. Harris on Jan 29, 2009 1:16 PM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
PETA is attempting to make vegetarianism seem fun and sexy to a mass audience. If they succeed, the world will be a vastly better place for humans and animals alike. Even for uptight "feminists" who disapprove of the way some people choose to express their sexuality.
Thank God for free speech.
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» RE: Leftwing Moral Majority
Posted by: Sonic Origami
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Posted by: DaBear on Jan 29, 2009 1:55 PM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The ad in the vid, total fun. Pre-pubescent kids aren't going to pay it much attention anyway. You wanna see exploitive, watch Coors and other 'Merkaaner "beer" ads... Some people have entirely too much damned free time.
'Merkaans really, you're just not the sharpest tools in the planetary shed, Get in touch with that, okay? You people really REALLY have sexual issues. So many therapists, why don't you employ them to help you get over yourselves?
But for me the more important question is, WTF is the "super bowl"? Is there some family holiday I've been missing all these years?
It's not the World Cup or anything, so who gives a shit?
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» RE: Go PETA!
Posted by: twocreeks
» RE: Go PETA!
Posted by: dwilliamsamh
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Posted by: Q30 on Jan 29, 2009 4:41 PM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
mmm-MMM! That's good eatin'
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» Dammit, Q30!
Posted by: zooeyhall
» And that's what billions of television viewers would /really/ be thinking...
Posted by: Aureantes
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Posted by: Tankerdeath on Jan 29, 2009 6:20 PM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There's hope, but not much, for this generation...
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» RE: xpression of sexuality...
Posted by: powerofbelief
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Posted by: vasumurti on Jan 29, 2009 9:41 PM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Did you know if Americans cut meat out of their diet for just a single day, it would save over 200,000 tons of food and nearly 2 million tons of CO2-equivalent emissions? That amount of food could feed all of the estimated 2 million displaced people in need of food in the Democratic Republic of Congo for at least 6 months, and the carbon emissions saved would be more than enough to cancel out the emissions from flying all of that food to the Congo.
This is the conclusion reached by calculations commissioned by the World Society for the Protection of Animals, or WSPA, in conjunction with their new report Eating Our Future: the Environmental Impact of Industrial Animal Agriculture, released in November 2008, just in time for Thanksgiving. The report and accompanying data show how industrial animal agriculture, or factory farming, not only causes the suffering of billions of animals, but is also a major contributor to climate change, scarcity of resources, and global problems such as poverty and disease.The report concludes by recommending a reduction in meat consumption and moving toward smaller-scale sustainable and humane food production methods.
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» RE: a reduction in meat consumption
Posted by: TheLimit
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Posted by: Aureantes on Jan 30, 2009 12:07 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
http://www.peta.org/sea_kittens/index.asp
Here's a link with Stephen Colbert's assessment of that (you'll have to c&p then remove the break after "videos/", as this site's so bloody unreasonable with its HTML):
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/ 215975/january-15-2009/tip-wag---monkey-on-the-lam
And that's just about the response that their slanted propaganda deserves. They're the equivalent of human "pro-life" groups that picket and pander with great show of emotion and graphic imagery, yet don't give a hang about other people (or people in general) once they're past risk of abortion. It's just the same thing but in cute widdle animal form.
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» RE: Let's not forget the poor "sea-kittens," while we're at it...
Posted by: Sonic Origami
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Posted by: JoeZ on Jan 30, 2009 8:45 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If you want to make a person angry and defensive, do something to threaten their food supply. This reaction is on the most primitive (real) level.
For this reason alone, the tactics of the anti-meat groups will be ineffective.
But most people (regardless on their stance on meat) can agree on some things. Such as:
* Factory farming sucks.
* Abuse of animals for experiments needs to be ended.
* Wasting water to raise animals in marginal environments needs to be ended as well.
I don't fight for any of these causes, but I try to vote for them with my purchases.
Anti meat people will never get anywhere with ridiculous campaigns like calling fish 'sea kittens', telling people (especially kids) that it is wrong to go fishing. People have *always* gone fishing regardless of time or place in history, pre-civilization, or geographic location. Likewise, people have always gone hunting. People have raised animals for food and materials for millenia.
I would like nothing more than to live in a world where I could fish in clean waters, hunt in healthy woods and get good food from farms that didn't abuse their animals or land.
Maybe we can work towards that instead!
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» RE: They are attacking our sustenance!
Posted by: TheLimit
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Posted by: Jasonix on Jan 30, 2009 11:06 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The mortality rate of vegans and non-vegetarians is identical, with vegans having somewhat less heart disease but more than 2.2 times as many neurological and mental illnesses. Since the study merely compares vegans to all non-vegetarians and many, if not most, non-vegetarians eat an unhealthy diet that contains a lot of red meat, saturated fat, and processed foods, this is hardly an endorsement for veganism. The longest-lived people on earth, like the Japanese, eat a moderate amount of lean meat. The mortality rate of devout Hindu and Jain Indians, as I've already noted, sucks.
You want to go crazy, blind, and spasmodic before dying a hideous death as you suffocate on your own drool rather than having a heart attack? Hardly seems like a good trade. There are only a couple of cancers (bladder and brain) that might pack as much pound-for-pound agony as MS, Alzheimer's, or ALS, but even those cancers are likely to kill you a lot sooner.
Now, do all you kids really want to experiment with your long-term health by adopting veganism? Contrary to popular belief, you don't stop growing at age 17 - you continue to gain muscle and bone mass well into your 20s, even into your 30s for some people. Your brains - those juicy, omega-3 dependent brains (mmmm....brains....) - are still developing. Do you want to risk ending up with a lighter, weaker bone structure and a slowed mind because of a misinformed lifestyle choice you made when you were 18?
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» RE: Here's the offical word from one of your own organizations, vegans
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
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Posted by: clvngodess on Jan 30, 2009 1:42 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» RE: Wait a minute! Peta is too sexy but...
Posted by: powerofbelief
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Posted by: Urgelt on Jan 30, 2009 3:38 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What are they mocking? The way media uses women to both to sell products and to narrowly define femininity.
What's wrong with mockery? The unwashed masses won't "get" it. After all, when you're looking at about seven acres of hot skin, your brain is wired to react to it viscerally, not intellectually. it's a pretty sure thing that PETA's irony will zip right over the heads of their Superbowl audience, should the ad actually air.
That's nothing new. PETA's past efforts to reach the public have also been loaded with irony and mockery, and there PETA sits, comfortably on the fringe of American discourse. Most Americans either don't know what PETA is or feel revulsion for it. Far from shaking the comfortable assumptions which permit animal cruelty to flourish, they have placed themselves beyond the playing field where most minds are made up.
They seem to prefer that, too.
Perhaps on some level, PETA fears its own success, and so embraces a self-defeating strategy. After all, if we all hopped on their bandwagon, they'd have no reason to exist.
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» RE: PETA At The Fringe
Posted by: Sonic Origami
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Posted by: sumwoman on Jan 30, 2009 4:56 PM
Current rating: 1 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
PETA stupid decision to run this ad...I would never support PETA because of it.
Can you picture some guy beating on his girlfriend or wife because she walked in front of the TV while he was watching football - in the background the PETA commercial is running...
He's punching her and screaming at her, 'You fat pork eating b*tch why can't you be a sexy vegetarian like those babes on the PETA commercial...then he breaks her jaw.
: (
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Posted by: Br@vehe@rt on Jan 30, 2009 6:41 PM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
So why not rant against The Media(tm) in general?
"We may have come to expect that from beer companies, but not organizations fighting for justice."
So because you expect it you'll shrug, but admit it, you just don't like PETA, or animal activists, or vegans -- especially powerful, well-funded activist vegans -- so they can't do what others get away with? I call that unfair prejudice, no matter what I think of sexy ads no matter who produces them.
Lastly: oh, lighten up. It's a funny, spoofing ad. Since when did we get all Puritan? Too late to close the barn door now. You know, the Europeans laugh at our odd double-standards with sex. WE get all high-and-mighty moralizing about showing it, but we're all doing it like crazy on the internet, in motels, dirty dirty dirty. Pulleeze. Grow Up, America. And spend more time helping animals and less time ranting about those who actually put their money where their mouth is.
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» RE: I really don't get why people are so scandalized
Posted by: ZPaul
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Posted by: leland61 on Jan 30, 2009 8:49 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As of Thursday there were still 3,000 unsold tickets. They should give them away to people who can't afford them. Not likely. The greed heads on the field and in the owners boxes aren't likely to give anything to anyone anytime soon.
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Posted by: wallisp on Jan 31, 2009 6:59 AM
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Posted by: LeeAnnG on Jan 31, 2009 8:17 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I watched the video and found it to be hilarious. And I most definitely did not think it was "objectifying" women. I once happened across a "professional" wrestling show (very, very briefly and accidentally) during which the announcer said, "Bring on the ho's" and a group of scantily clad young women appeared. Now THAT is objectifying and very insulting. In comparison, the PETA ad is pretty innocuous.
Funny how sex is so vilified by both the Christian right and (apparently) some leftwingers as well, as evidenced by all the "OH! MY! GOD! Sex for sale!" kind of articles and their responses here on Alternet, but violence in media and entertainment is pretty much ignored.
Boxing, pro-wrestling, and even less violent sports like football cause injuries and death from time to time. They are far more inherently dangerous to the participants than prostitution. I say "inherently" because if prostitution were legal, much of the danger would be alleviated, but the actual physical damage in contact sports is always there.
What about shows like Criminal Minds or the CSI series that have very detailed, graphic, horrific scenes? I am opposed to censorship of nearly any kind, and I think people should be allowed to engage in any activities that don't hurt others, so I am not advocating the elimination of wrestling or boxing or TV shows that depict explicit violence or gruesome details. I'm just pointing out that, in the American culture, violence is acceptable to many people who become horrified at sexual images.
I wonder if it ever occurred to those who were so offended at the sexual content and misuse of women that it could just as easily be said that this ad really makes fun of men. After all, it implies that men are so gullible, stupid, or mindless that they would stop eating meat just because they saw some beautiful women having illicit relationships with vegetables. Pretty insulting, no?
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Posted by: TomOfMaine on Jan 31, 2009 8:59 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Posted by: Tim Brown on Jan 31, 2009 9:21 AM
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Posted by: seaoftears on Jan 31, 2009 11:54 AM
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Posted by: TwinsFanatic on Jan 31, 2009 12:44 PM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
And of course this is subjective, but I think that the group does superb work. Check out the HBO special "I am an animal" about their founder, or the New Yorker feature by Michael Specter from 2003 (Google it). Or just check out the annual review on their Web site. This lambasting is really based on nothing.
I am, of course, a PETA supporter!
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Posted by: WingedGryphon on Feb 2, 2009 11:13 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Look here
and here
and here
There's lots more.. I am tired of pasting links.
Vegans are sickly and vacuous. Yuck.
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Posted by: GeoL on Feb 2, 2009 6:19 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"heart disease begins in childhood," and most often and most strongly in response to inherited genetics, not diet.
"meat and dairy makes you fat," sort of like carbohydrates, especially the simple (like PETA) sorts.
"because in every package of chicken there's a little poop." Have you ever looked at FDA guidelines dictating the permissible concentrations by weight of rat feces in flour? It ain't just chicken, dear, there's a little poop in everything you eat, and a lot of it in the ads you see...
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Posted by: DesertRat99 on Feb 3, 2009 9:55 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Am I the only one who saw the silent pleading in the eyes of the enslaved lingerie models?
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Posted by: greentara on Feb 4, 2009 9:15 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Posted by: Nietzsche’s Bastard on Jan 29, 2009 12:26 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» RE: Children do not need to be exposed to this smut.
Posted by: Pegaleg
» RE: Children do not need to be exposed to this smut.
Posted by: dlibby
» RE: Children do not need to be exposed to this smut.
Posted by: kungfuma
» RE: Children do not need to be exposed to this smut.
Posted by: masthead
» RE: Children do not need to be exposed to this smut.
Posted by: kungfuma
» Peta does not represent...
Posted by: SolarSiStar
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Posted by: Unapologetic Liberal on Jan 29, 2009 1:22 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Given their hypocritical behavior and their frequently contradictory statements, coupled with their irrational and sensationalist PR campaigns, it seems abundantly evident that PETA's primary purpose is to make lots of money for its executive management.
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» PETA has gotten rich from its donations - from a vegetarian
Posted by: georgiaorwell
» RE: PETA has gotten rich from its donations - from a vegetarian
Posted by: SolarSiStar
» PETA execs don't make big salaries... They're not in it for the money, for sure.
Posted by: TwinsFanatic
» RE: Should we be surprised? It's PETA, after all.
Posted by: cmaciain
» RE: Should we be surprised? It's PETA, after all.
Posted by: Unapologetic Liberal
» RE: Should we be surprised? It's PETA, after all.
Posted by: Gisele
» For the last thirty some odd years human insulin has been grown using...
Posted by: ABetterFuture
» Pig insulin
Posted by: BlueTigress
» RE: Should we be surprised? It's PETA, after all.
Posted by: Br@vehe@rt
» Adopt them !
Posted by: TomOfMaine
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Posted by: mercianomad on Jan 29, 2009 2:28 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
So they make a lowbrow ad with sex as its selling point and aim it directly at the center of the bellcurve in the USA. If McDonald's or Nestle can pervert the family image to sell tainted products, PETA can pervert the sex one just like any beer advert does.
Personally, I hate it all and I'm sick of advertising more than almost anything on this earth save maybe cars being literally everywhere, but that is the game one has to play now in this country, now that nearly everyone in it has been stupidified and made shallow by advertising and marketing beyond any acceptable cultural limit.
If you've got something to sell, be it an ideology or a product, your best bet is to make your ad as dumb and vapid as possible, preferably with some ultra-hot model woman front and center moving her hips and giving alluring "I want you" eyes, some slick groovy tune, and soap-clean post-edited camera work. Sickening, but true.
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» RE: I can't agree. The ads that stick with people are not the sexy, sexist ones.
Posted by: Quicksilver
» RE: I can't agree. The ads that stick with people are not the sexy, sexist ones.
Posted by: mercianomad
» RE: It's consonant with advertising in general
Posted by: kungfuma
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Posted by: villager1 on Jan 29, 2009 2:34 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
We allow these money lovers to destroy our kid's minds, women's rights and our integrity, with this disgusting advertising. There is no hope for us anymore - we are all paying the price for our lack of integrity and laying ourselves open to abuse by these characterless idiots.
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» RE: villager
Posted by: dlibby
» RE: Neither are they slaughtered in their youth for their tenderness
Posted by: channing
» RE: Neither are they slaughtered in their youth for their tenderness
Posted by: kungfuma
» RE: Neither are they slaughtered in their youth for their tenderness
Posted by: kungfuma
» Acepahlic animals
Posted by: BlueTigress
» RE: villager
Posted by: kungfuma
» RE: villager
Posted by: koolwoman
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Posted by: jnatejr on Jan 29, 2009 3:04 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» RE: reader
Posted by: helenwheels
» RE: reader
Posted by: EncinoM
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Posted by: diablobluz on Jan 29, 2009 3:19 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» RE: c'mon!
Posted by: Markson
» RE: c'mon!
Posted by: kungfuma
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Posted by: mbruton on Jan 29, 2009 3:21 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» I care.
Posted by: heid
» RE: I care.
Posted by: mbruton
» RE: Who Cares
Posted by: dlibby
» RE: Who Cares
Posted by: mbruton
» RE: Who Cares
Posted by: kungfuma
Comments are closed-
Posted by: kepstein7777 on Jan 29, 2009 3:40 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The real question ought to be whether these things work, and what demographic they're going after. Are guys who are into football and babes who do naughty things with vegetables prime candidates for conversion?
"Dude! Check out this ad on YouTube that they wouldn't show during the Super Bowl. Pretty hot, eh?...You know what?...Instead of hot wings and pork rinds, we should have sliced veggies and dairy-free dip at the party this year."
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» RE: PETA
Posted by: dlibby
» RE: PETA
Posted by: Xynyx
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Posted by: cmaciain on Jan 29, 2009 4:25 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
**eye roll**
What a bunch of hypocrites!
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Posted by: beandang on Jan 29, 2009 5:38 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
RT
Privacy Center
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» RE: Idiots
Posted by: lelectra
» RE: A plague on both their houses
Posted by: Xynyx
» RE: Idiots
Posted by: Crazy H
» Don't click on that link!
Posted by: GuitarBill
» How is bigotry good for "us?"
Posted by: Markson
» RE: Idiots
Posted by: dwilliamsamh
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Posted by: rimchamp77 on Jan 29, 2009 5:59 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» RE: JT Barrie
Posted by: wwittman
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Posted by: 876 on Jan 29, 2009 6:04 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
God, what a cop out isn’t that what they all say? Just pretend you’re making fun of the next guy, everyone blames each other and then they go on to insist that we the people want this. Actually I don’t want it. It is gratuitous. There is a time and place for sex and it is not in a living room full of relatives or friends at a Sunday gathering. I think the real fact is these supposed creative people who make ads for a living actually aren’t that creative at all as evidenced by their total lack of any ideas besides naked women or even children to sell all things from designer underwear to vegetarianism. God get a life, it gets old at some point. I don’t need sex shoved in my face 24/7.
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» RE: What a cop out
Posted by: Quicksilver
» RE: What a cop out
Posted by: pelican beak
» RE: What a cop out
Posted by: Quicksilver
» RE: What a cop out
Posted by: pelican beak
Comments are closed-
Posted by: JoshuaLudd on Jan 29, 2009 6:51 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This ad was not meant to be aired. It was meant to be rejected, so that there was controversy over it... far more than if it had aired. Now everyone and his/her brother will be looking up the ad online to see what all the fuss is about. Along with their constant parade of nude women... celebrities if they can get them... in cages slathered in body paint to protest circuses, PETA wants to talk about ethics. PETA has no ethics. They are media manipulators whodo a disservice to those who stand against both animal cruelty AND this kind of sexist, exploitive tripe in advertising and on television.
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» RE: classic peta tactic.
Posted by: georgiaorwell
» RE: classic peta tactic.
Posted by: maddogmarley
» RE: classic peta tactic.
Posted by: Gisele
» RE: classic peta tactic.
Posted by: maddogmarley
» RE: who was exploited in the making of this ad?
Posted by: rfrancis@godisdead.com
» RE: who was exploited? MEN!
Posted by: Crazy H
» RE: who was exploited? MEN!
Posted by: kungfuma
» every vegetarian who has to have their convictions trivialized with this shit, to start with.
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
» RE: classic peta tactic.
Posted by: munchkinpup
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Posted by: chloelin on Jan 29, 2009 7:02 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» I would say its actually...
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
» You've been a very, very bad boy Joshua
Posted by: 2dogarage
» Well...
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
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Posted by: lelectra on Jan 29, 2009 7:45 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» Well, I care, and maybe you should, too!
Posted by: georgiaorwell
» Time for a new hobby!
Posted by: BlueTigress
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Posted by: monkeywrench on Jan 29, 2009 8:16 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When she suh-lides that bunch of asparagus southward, or does her intimate thing with a pumpkin, it just makes me want to get ... uh ... healthy ...
- - - -
According to some well beyond PETA, even plants have feelings – so, has anyone considered how the asparagus feels about being used in this way?
And even more disturbing: these veggies are dead, so does that make the acts in the commercial necrophilia?
This, obviously, is a controversy that will not go away ...
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» RE: Oooh ...
Posted by: kungfuma
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Posted by: billdake@sbcglobal.net on Jan 29, 2009 8:45 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Treating animals with respect and allowing them a proper living space with the abilty of liveing a good life is the best we can do for them. In nature animals usually lead stressfull lives being tramatized and eatened by preditors. We need laws to protect their comfort and to provide as normal a life as possible for them and without the constant threat from predators.
That's what Peta should be all about, not depriving people of nutrious food or causing the animal deaths and chaos that would be the case if we were all vegatarians.
There is nothing wrong with Sex. Too bad we as a society cannot handle it.
Bill Dake
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» RE: If we were all Vegatarians
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
» RE: If we were all Vegatarians
Posted by: helenahanbasquet
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Posted by: rfrancis@godisdead.com on Jan 29, 2009 8:47 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Sex and sexiness doesn't not equal sexist.
Saying things like women belong in the kitchen cooking for men is sexist.
Saying women shouldn't be President because during their periods they are too emotionally unstable is sexist.
Showing scantily clad women playing with vegetables is not sexist.
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» RE: When Did Sex Become Sexist?
Posted by: Gisele
» RE: When Did Sex Become Sexist? > tasteless?
Posted by: Aureantes
» RE: When Did Sex Become Sexist?
Posted by: rfrancis@godisdead.com
» RE: When Did Sex Become Sexist?
Posted by: munchkinpup
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Posted by: 2dogarage on Jan 29, 2009 9:20 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Today the author gives us a lead-in that the ad is exploitative etc. and the choir is now singing a different song, mostly agreeing with his characterization which seems different from how he introduced the article yesterday.
I wonder if this is some kind of experiment by Alternet? Anyway I've decided to copy my comments from yesterday since the conversation is ongoing even though yesterday's thread seems to have been terminated. I want to add that I was in the minority on this subject yesterday but today find myself a member of the majority it seems but I wonder what caused the shift?
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» Using meat to sell veggies
Posted by: 2dogarage
» I thought it was offensive
Posted by: 2dogarage
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Posted by: veggiegrrrl on Jan 29, 2009 9:43 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» Animals don't take pleasure in sadism and suffering.
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
» RE: > The joy of the kill
Posted by: Aureantes
» I said kill.. not eat.
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
» Not everyone is vegetarian
Posted by: 2dogarage
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Posted by: SkeeterVT1 on Jan 29, 2009 9:48 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The fact is, 85 percent of Americans who are vegetarians are women; every effort to date to get men to switch to a vegetarian diet has been met with fierce resistance.
Much of that resistance is rooted in homophobia; it's no secret that a disproportionately high percentage -- perhaps even a majority -- of male vegetarians in America are gay and bisexual men.
NBC might, therefore, have had a another reason to reject PETA's ad.
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» RE: Hitler was a vegetarian.
Posted by: Jasonix
» RE: Hitler was a vegetarian.--WRONG!
Posted by: cmaciain
» RE: Hitler was a vegetarian.--WRONG!
Posted by: Jasonix
» Guess they would have had to reject all germans, volkswagon, facial hair...
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
» RE: Hitler was a vegetarian.
Posted by: Sonic Origami
» RE: Hitler was a vegetarian.
Posted by: Jasonix
» RE: Hitler WASN'T a vegetarian.
Posted by: vasumurti
» All Sikh, Jain, Hindu, or Buddhist men are not gay
Posted by: Shankari46
» it's no secret that a disproportionately high percentage -- perhaps even a majority -- of male veget
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
» RE: Most Male Super Bowl Viewers Would Have ....reached for more hot wings
Posted by: Aureantes
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Posted by: veggiegrrrl on Jan 29, 2009 10:00 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Posted by: lynmarenjensen on Jan 29, 2009 10:10 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» Not all publicity is GOOD
Posted by: 2dogarage
» I didn't even bother....
Posted by: Aureantes
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Posted by: vasumurti on Jan 29, 2009 10:26 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In her 1991 book, The Sexual Politics of Meat, Carol J. Adams notes that throughout human history, beginning with the hunter-gatherer tribes, meat has been associated with male violence and masculinity, people with power, the aristocracy, etc.
Meat is associated with male virility, whereas vegetable and nonmeat foods are viewed as women’s food. "Meat is a symbol of patriarchy" writes Adams bluntly. She cites a fictional illustration from Mary McCarthy’s Birds of America. Miss Scott, a vegetarian, is invited to a NATO general’s house for Thanksgiving. Her refusal of turkey angers the general.
According to Adams, "Male belligerence in this area is not limited to fictional military men. Men who batter women have often used the absence of meat as a pretext for violence against women."
Adams compares "The Rape of Animals" to "the Butchering of Women," as well as "Sexual Violence and Meat Eating." She quotes the organizer of a "Bunny Bop" in which rabbits are killed by clubs, feet, stones, etc. as saying, "What would all these rabbit hunters be doing if they weren’t letting off all this steam? I’ll tell you what they'd be doing. They’d be drinking and carousing and beating their wives."
The Feminists for Animal Rights newsletter (Vol. VI, Nos. 1-2, 1991) cites EarthSave as stating that taxpayer subsidies to the livestock industry in California for 1991 totaled $24 million, while the yearly budget for child welfare was only $125,000.
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» RE: Moon-bat bullsh*t
Posted by: Jasonix
» Despite an absence of meat...
Posted by: morticia
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Posted by: T0M on Jan 29, 2009 10:38 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
They probably receive their funding (which seems enormous) from Gillette.
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Posted by: Elmowilcox on Jan 29, 2009 8:31 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As to these beautiful women being (ab)used for Superbowl ads to sell things and why Budweiser doesn't choose to advertise with steamy-hot men.....it's marketing, stupid.
Given that there are exceptions, of the billion or so people that watch the Superbowl, what percentage are women that would want to both drink Budweiser AND have it sold to them by male models? I would venture it's a much smaller percentage than the number of men that guzzle this swill and love to see scantily clad supermodels, and as Superbowl advertising comes at a premium, companies have to reach their constituency in a cost effective manner, no?
I suppose it would be much less offensive if the smokin' hot women were being chased around by beer-weilding Fabios in banana hammocks? You know, so that all sides are represented. I think it's funny that we progressives have such a conservative streak in us, beauty is beauty. It's been flaunted for one thing or another since the dawn of time. It's a fact of life.
Beautiful people are nice to look at. Prudes and feminists are the only people that have a problem with it. I won't even include unattractive people in that statement, because there's plenty of unattractive folks around that enjoy them some supermodels, both male and female.
I do understand that a woman doesn't necessarily want to see another woman in her underwear, the only thing that "offends" me about male supermodels in Speedos is not wanting to see a guy's junk, so I can understand that aspect. But it doesn't bother me much either, I've got this magic wand called a remote that instantly changes the picture to something else, and then back when I'm sure the threat has passed. It's fucking amazing stuff. I would recommend one to anyone that is offended by anything that may pop up on their television screen, some TVs even come with them!!!
If you're looking for a platform or something to complain about, complain about the number of pharma ads plastered on television. It's no surprise the number of TV shows that involve hospitals, Pfizer and Wyeth et al are probably funding 75% of television nowadays. THAT, sir, is ridiculous. Right now, I've got COPD, depression, high blood pressure, restless leg syndrome blah blah and blah.
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Posted by: doctorsquared on Jan 29, 2009 10:44 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Posted by: Sonic Origami on Jan 29, 2009 10:53 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Facts: several women are taking part in filming a commercial with only underwear on; they are playing with vegetables with sexual allusions.
Yeah, you are right: this is the end of the world and PETA are war criminals!
First of all, these women took place in the filming without force, with their free will. The author obviously assumes these women were very stupid, because they were (allegedly) extremely abused without even noticing it.
The fact is that nobody has suffered, nobody was hurt and nobody was abused. Quite contrary to how non-human animals are being treated so that humans could have meat for dinner. They were tortured, abused and killed in most horrible ways. Without their consent, of course!
It seems that showing naked (or better, half-naked) human body is insulting and evil!??? This is nonsense! Where are we? Is this some fundamentalist pseudo-leftist sect or what?
Tell you what: there is absolutely nothing wrong with (consensual) sex, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with (consensual) nakedness!
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» RE: This is not sexism! The author is speciesist!
Posted by: powerofbelief
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Posted by: vasumurti on Jan 29, 2009 11:08 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Half the water consumed in the U.S. goes to irrigate land growing feed and fodder for livestock. Huge amounts of water are used to wash away their excrement. U.S. livestock produce 20 times as much excrement as does the entire human population; creating sewage which is 10 to several hundred times more concentrated than raw domestic sewage. Animal wastes cause 10 times more water pollution than the U.S. human population; the meat industry causes 3 times as much harmful organic water pollution than the rest of the nation's industries combined. Meat producers, the number one industrial polluters in our nation, contribute to half the water pollution in the United States.
Joanna Macy, author of Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age, depicts America moving towards a vegan diet in her foreword to Diet for a New America:
"The effects on our physical health are immediate. The incidence of cancer and heart attack, the nation's biggest killers, drops precipitously. So do many other diseases now demonstrably and causally linked to consumption of animal proteins and fats, such as osteoporosis...
"The social, ecological, and economic consequences, as we Americans turn away from animal food products, are equally remarkable. We find that the grain we previously fed to fatten livestock can now feed five times the U.S. population; so we have become able to alleviate malnutrition and hunger on a worldwide scale...
"The great forests of the world, that we had been decimating for grazing purposes, begin to grow again. Oxygen-producing trees are no longer sacrificed for cholesterol-producing steaks.
"The water crisis eases. As we stop raising and grinding up cattle for hamburgers, we discover that ranching and farm factories had been the major drain on our water resources. The amount now available for irrigation and hydroelectric power doubles. Meanwhile, the change in diet frees over 90% of the fossil fuel previously used to produce food. With this liberation of water energy and fossil fuel energy, our reliance on oil imports declines, as does the rationale for building nuclear power plants..."
Joanna Macy admits, "This scenario is wildly, absurdly utopian. It is also clearly the way we are meant to live, built to live." What could possibly make it a reality? "It is this very book!"
Paul McCartney says, "If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you could do. It's staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty. Let's do it! Linda was right. Going veggie is the single best idea for the new century."
Roberta Kalechofsky of Jews for Animal Rights says:
"Merely by ceasing to eat meat
Merely by practicing restraint
We have the power to end a painful industry
"We do not have to bear arms to end this evil
We do not have to contribute money
We do not have to sit in jail or go to
meetings or demonstrations or
engage in acts of civil disobedience
"Most often, the act of repairing the world,
of healing mortal wounds,
is left to heroes and tzaddikim (holy people)
Saints and people of unusual discipline
"But here is an action every mortal can
perform--surely it is not too difficult!"
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» There! Yes! YOU!
Posted by: nen
» nen- you make a great point, of course....
Posted by: veggiegrrrl
» RE: Gee, the Indians didn't get it right after millennia, but John Robbin's nailed it...
Posted by: Jasonix
» Let's keep the racist Remark out of this Please
Posted by: Shankari46
» RE: No racism, just fact
Posted by: Jasonix
» RE: Oh, and about racism...
Posted by: Jasonix
» India produces.....
Posted by: morticia
» RE: India produces.....
Posted by: Jasonix
» RE: India produces.....
Posted by: morticia
» RE: India produces.....
Posted by: Jasonix
» RE: India produces.....
Posted by: morticia
Comments are closed-
Posted by: logansafi on Jan 29, 2009 12:05 PM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» RE: Male pseudo-feminists like the author of this commentary against PETA's ad are utterly humorless!
Posted by: powerofbelief
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Posted by: Gravitas on Jan 29, 2009 12:44 PM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I have said it before and I will say it again. PETA could care less about animals. They are just using the issue to get attention for themselves. They are messed up souls wounded by humanity that are just using the animal rights cause to work out their own issues.
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» RE: Yuck
Posted by: Sonic Origami
» RE: Yuck
Posted by: TheLimit
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Posted by: Alternutty on Jan 29, 2009 12:54 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
NOM NOM NOM.
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Posted by: Shankari46 on Jan 29, 2009 1:13 PM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I had to drop PETA on my myspace, because of all the offensive pictures they posted. I had to friend up with a more low key vegetarian group.
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» RE: Like it or Not the Biggest Lot of Vegetarians. . .
Posted by: Aureantes
» RE: PETA isn't a vegetarian group
Posted by: TheLimit
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Posted by: James W. Harris on Jan 29, 2009 1:16 PM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
PETA is attempting to make vegetarianism seem fun and sexy to a mass audience. If they succeed, the world will be a vastly better place for humans and animals alike. Even for uptight "feminists" who disapprove of the way some people choose to express their sexuality.
Thank God for free speech.
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» RE: Leftwing Moral Majority
Posted by: Sonic Origami
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Posted by: DaBear on Jan 29, 2009 1:55 PM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The ad in the vid, total fun. Pre-pubescent kids aren't going to pay it much attention anyway. You wanna see exploitive, watch Coors and other 'Merkaaner "beer" ads... Some people have entirely too much damned free time.
'Merkaans really, you're just not the sharpest tools in the planetary shed, Get in touch with that, okay? You people really REALLY have sexual issues. So many therapists, why don't you employ them to help you get over yourselves?
But for me the more important question is, WTF is the "super bowl"? Is there some family holiday I've been missing all these years?
It's not the World Cup or anything, so who gives a shit?
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» RE: Go PETA!
Posted by: twocreeks
» RE: Go PETA!
Posted by: dwilliamsamh
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Posted by: Q30 on Jan 29, 2009 4:41 PM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
mmm-MMM! That's good eatin'
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» Dammit, Q30!
Posted by: zooeyhall
» And that's what billions of television viewers would /really/ be thinking...
Posted by: Aureantes
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Posted by: Tankerdeath on Jan 29, 2009 6:20 PM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There's hope, but not much, for this generation...
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» RE: xpression of sexuality...
Posted by: powerofbelief
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Posted by: vasumurti on Jan 29, 2009 9:41 PM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Did you know if Americans cut meat out of their diet for just a single day, it would save over 200,000 tons of food and nearly 2 million tons of CO2-equivalent emissions? That amount of food could feed all of the estimated 2 million displaced people in need of food in the Democratic Republic of Congo for at least 6 months, and the carbon emissions saved would be more than enough to cancel out the emissions from flying all of that food to the Congo.
This is the conclusion reached by calculations commissioned by the World Society for the Protection of Animals, or WSPA, in conjunction with their new report Eating Our Future: the Environmental Impact of Industrial Animal Agriculture, released in November 2008, just in time for Thanksgiving. The report and accompanying data show how industrial animal agriculture, or factory farming, not only causes the suffering of billions of animals, but is also a major contributor to climate change, scarcity of resources, and global problems such as poverty and disease.The report concludes by recommending a reduction in meat consumption and moving toward smaller-scale sustainable and humane food production methods.
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» RE: a reduction in meat consumption
Posted by: TheLimit
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Posted by: Aureantes on Jan 30, 2009 12:07 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
http://www.peta.org/sea_kittens/index.asp
Here's a link with Stephen Colbert's assessment of that (you'll have to c&p then remove the break after "videos/", as this site's so bloody unreasonable with its HTML):
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/ 215975/january-15-2009/tip-wag---monkey-on-the-lam
And that's just about the response that their slanted propaganda deserves. They're the equivalent of human "pro-life" groups that picket and pander with great show of emotion and graphic imagery, yet don't give a hang about other people (or people in general) once they're past risk of abortion. It's just the same thing but in cute widdle animal form.
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» RE: Let's not forget the poor "sea-kittens," while we're at it...
Posted by: Sonic Origami
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Posted by: JoeZ on Jan 30, 2009 8:45 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If you want to make a person angry and defensive, do something to threaten their food supply. This reaction is on the most primitive (real) level.
For this reason alone, the tactics of the anti-meat groups will be ineffective.
But most people (regardless on their stance on meat) can agree on some things. Such as:
* Factory farming sucks.
* Abuse of animals for experiments needs to be ended.
* Wasting water to raise animals in marginal environments needs to be ended as well.
I don't fight for any of these causes, but I try to vote for them with my purchases.
Anti meat people will never get anywhere with ridiculous campaigns like calling fish 'sea kittens', telling people (especially kids) that it is wrong to go fishing. People have *always* gone fishing regardless of time or place in history, pre-civilization, or geographic location. Likewise, people have always gone hunting. People have raised animals for food and materials for millenia.
I would like nothing more than to live in a world where I could fish in clean waters, hunt in healthy woods and get good food from farms that didn't abuse their animals or land.
Maybe we can work towards that instead!
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» RE: They are attacking our sustenance!
Posted by: TheLimit
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Posted by: Jasonix on Jan 30, 2009 11:06 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The mortality rate of vegans and non-vegetarians is identical, with vegans having somewhat less heart disease but more than 2.2 times as many neurological and mental illnesses. Since the study merely compares vegans to all non-vegetarians and many, if not most, non-vegetarians eat an unhealthy diet that contains a lot of red meat, saturated fat, and processed foods, this is hardly an endorsement for veganism. The longest-lived people on earth, like the Japanese, eat a moderate amount of lean meat. The mortality rate of devout Hindu and Jain Indians, as I've already noted, sucks.
You want to go crazy, blind, and spasmodic before dying a hideous death as you suffocate on your own drool rather than having a heart attack? Hardly seems like a good trade. There are only a couple of cancers (bladder and brain) that might pack as much pound-for-pound agony as MS, Alzheimer's, or ALS, but even those cancers are likely to kill you a lot sooner.
Now, do all you kids really want to experiment with your long-term health by adopting veganism? Contrary to popular belief, you don't stop growing at age 17 - you continue to gain muscle and bone mass well into your 20s, even into your 30s for some people. Your brains - those juicy, omega-3 dependent brains (mmmm....brains....) - are still developing. Do you want to risk ending up with a lighter, weaker bone structure and a slowed mind because of a misinformed lifestyle choice you made when you were 18?
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» RE: Here's the offical word from one of your own organizations, vegans
Posted by: JoshuaLudd
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Posted by: clvngodess on Jan 30, 2009 1:42 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» RE: Wait a minute! Peta is too sexy but...
Posted by: powerofbelief
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Posted by: Urgelt on Jan 30, 2009 3:38 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What are they mocking? The way media uses women to both to sell products and to narrowly define femininity.
What's wrong with mockery? The unwashed masses won't "get" it. After all, when you're looking at about seven acres of hot skin, your brain is wired to react to it viscerally, not intellectually. it's a pretty sure thing that PETA's irony will zip right over the heads of their Superbowl audience, should the ad actually air.
That's nothing new. PETA's past efforts to reach the public have also been loaded with irony and mockery, and there PETA sits, comfortably on the fringe of American discourse. Most Americans either don't know what PETA is or feel revulsion for it. Far from shaking the comfortable assumptions which permit animal cruelty to flourish, they have placed themselves beyond the playing field where most minds are made up.
They seem to prefer that, too.
Perhaps on some level, PETA fears its own success, and so embraces a self-defeating strategy. After all, if we all hopped on their bandwagon, they'd have no reason to exist.
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» RE: PETA At The Fringe
Posted by: Sonic Origami
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Posted by: sumwoman on Jan 30, 2009 4:56 PM
Current rating: 1 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
PETA stupid decision to run this ad...I would never support PETA because of it.
Can you picture some guy beating on his girlfriend or wife because she walked in front of the TV while he was watching football - in the background the PETA commercial is running...
He's punching her and screaming at her, 'You fat pork eating b*tch why can't you be a sexy vegetarian like those babes on the PETA commercial...then he breaks her jaw.
: (
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Posted by: Br@vehe@rt on Jan 30, 2009 6:41 PM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
So why not rant against The Media(tm) in general?
"We may have come to expect that from beer companies, but not organizations fighting for justice."
So because you expect it you'll shrug, but admit it, you just don't like PETA, or animal activists, or vegans -- especially powerful, well-funded activist vegans -- so they can't do what others get away with? I call that unfair prejudice, no matter what I think of sexy ads no matter who produces them.
Lastly: oh, lighten up. It's a funny, spoofing ad. Since when did we get all Puritan? Too late to close the barn door now. You know, the Europeans laugh at our odd double-standards with sex. WE get all high-and-mighty moralizing about showing it, but we're all doing it like crazy on the internet, in motels, dirty dirty dirty. Pulleeze. Grow Up, America. And spend more time helping animals and less time ranting about those who actually put their money where their mouth is.
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» RE: I really don't get why people are so scandalized
Posted by: ZPaul
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Posted by: leland61 on Jan 30, 2009 8:49 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As of Thursday there were still 3,000 unsold tickets. They should give them away to people who can't afford them. Not likely. The greed heads on the field and in the owners boxes aren't likely to give anything to anyone anytime soon.
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Posted by: wallisp on Jan 31, 2009 6:59 AM
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Posted by: LeeAnnG on Jan 31, 2009 8:17 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I watched the video and found it to be hilarious. And I most definitely did not think it was "objectifying" women. I once happened across a "professional" wrestling show (very, very briefly and accidentally) during which the announcer said, "Bring on the ho's" and a group of scantily clad young women appeared. Now THAT is objectifying and very insulting. In comparison, the PETA ad is pretty innocuous.
Funny how sex is so vilified by both the Christian right and (apparently) some leftwingers as well, as evidenced by all the "OH! MY! GOD! Sex for sale!" kind of articles and their responses here on Alternet, but violence in media and entertainment is pretty much ignored.
Boxing, pro-wrestling, and even less violent sports like football cause injuries and death from time to time. They are far more inherently dangerous to the participants than prostitution. I say "inherently" because if prostitution were legal, much of the danger would be alleviated, but the actual physical damage in contact sports is always there.
What about shows like Criminal Minds or the CSI series that have very detailed, graphic, horrific scenes? I am opposed to censorship of nearly any kind, and I think people should be allowed to engage in any activities that don't hurt others, so I am not advocating the elimination of wrestling or boxing or TV shows that depict explicit violence or gruesome details. I'm just pointing out that, in the American culture, violence is acceptable to many people who become horrified at sexual images.
I wonder if it ever occurred to those who were so offended at the sexual content and misuse of women that it could just as easily be said that this ad really makes fun of men. After all, it implies that men are so gullible, stupid, or mindless that they would stop eating meat just because they saw some beautiful women having illicit relationships with vegetables. Pretty insulting, no?
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Posted by: TomOfMaine on Jan 31, 2009 8:59 AM
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Posted by: Tim Brown on Jan 31, 2009 9:21 AM
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Posted by: seaoftears on Jan 31, 2009 11:54 AM
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Posted by: TwinsFanatic on Jan 31, 2009 12:44 PM
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And of course this is subjective, but I think that the group does superb work. Check out the HBO special "I am an animal" about their founder, or the New Yorker feature by Michael Specter from 2003 (Google it). Or just check out the annual review on their Web site. This lambasting is really based on nothing.
I am, of course, a PETA supporter!
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Posted by: WingedGryphon on Feb 2, 2009 11:13 AM
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Look here
and here
and here
There's lots more.. I am tired of pasting links.
Vegans are sickly and vacuous. Yuck.
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Posted by: GeoL on Feb 2, 2009 6:19 PM
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"heart disease begins in childhood," and most often and most strongly in response to inherited genetics, not diet.
"meat and dairy makes you fat," sort of like carbohydrates, especially the simple (like PETA) sorts.
"because in every package of chicken there's a little poop." Have you ever looked at FDA guidelines dictating the permissible concentrations by weight of rat feces in flour? It ain't just chicken, dear, there's a little poop in everything you eat, and a lot of it in the ads you see...
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Posted by: DesertRat99 on Feb 3, 2009 9:55 AM
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Am I the only one who saw the silent pleading in the eyes of the enslaved lingerie models?
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Posted by: greentara on Feb 4, 2009 9:15 AM
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