PETA Ad Dubbed Too Sexy for Super Bowl

By Isaac Fitzgerald, AlterNet. Posted January 29, 2009.

Why pay for ad space that cable news will gladly give you for free? This is the type of thinking behind PETA's marketing success, "Veggie Love."

And who can blame it? Online, print and television news outlets find it hard to pass up such a juicy title as "Too Hot for TV: PETA's Rejected Super Bowl Ad." Cubical workers all over are watching the ad despite warnings of NSFW (which stands for "not safe for work"). It's like the Internet's parental advisory sticker -- it just makes the kids want it more. It helps that NBC released a titillating list of reasons for rejecting the ad:

* licking pumpkin

* touching her breast with her hand while eating broccoli

* pumpkin from behind between legs

* rubbing pelvic region with pumpkin

* screwing herself with broccoli (fuzzy)

* asparagus on her lap appearing as if it is ready to be inserted into vagina

* licking eggplant

* rubbing asparagus on breast

Now, whether one is offended by the material, a horndog who likes the idea of turnips and tits, or just a curious bystander, your average person is likely to find "Veggie Love" and watch it as soon as their boss leaves to go get a latte.

Which begs the question: Are the marketing folks at PETA geniuses?

Perhaps. PETA had not gotten back to us by press time to answer our questions, namely "Did it ever want this ad to be accepted by NBC in the first place?" By going viral, the ad is having much more of an impact. Instead of being lumped in with the always-predictable "crazy Super Bowl ads" that run after game day, the ad is now out ahead of the pack and getting its own individual attention (again, thanks to articles like this one).

As the entire mainstream media take a moment to go "Look, boobs and broccoli," surely PETA is pleased by the attention being paid to "Veggie Love," and perhaps a rejection was what PETA was after all along.

If you watch "Veggie Love" on PETA's site, it is immediately followed by a much more serious, and a much more clothed, video.

"Chew on This" lists reasons to become a vegetarian, which includes "because heart disease begins in childhood," "because eating meat and dairy makes you fat" and "because in every package of chicken there's a little poop."

The video shows animals being killed in gruesome manners, factory chickens living in squalor and pigs being stood upon while they die slow, painful deaths.

"Chew on This" made me feel a lot worse about the pastrami sandwich I had for lunch than the ad where a mega-babe licked a pumpkin.

Watch it:

"Chew on This" also brings up studies about meat-eating leading to impotence in older men. Remember, this is the reasoning behind the vegetable/bikinied ladies ad as well. So, if the undressed women draw attention to the much more serious "Chew on This," with its valuable information and more-shocking-than-scandalous imagery, do the ends justify the means?

Of course not. From a strictly marketing outlook, the fact is that people are only talking about and showing the first ad. When you embed "Veggie Love," it only shows that ad and doesn't show "Chew on This." So no one is really talking about "Chew on This." No one is really talking that much about how consuming meat is linked impotence.

No, most people are talking about how NBC denied the ad a Super Bowl slot because it's "too hot." Like this commenter on PETA's blog:

Okay ... one of the hottest ads I've seen in 41 years! Going out to get more veggies ... right now! Great job, PETA! Shame on you, NBC!

Or this one:

OMG! That ad is soooo hot! I love it. NBC is so lame for not accepting it.

See more stories tagged with: sex, ad, super bowl, peta, objectification, veggies

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