vegansaurus!

Wow. PCRM, you’ve outdone yourself. Apparently this is some attention-seeking gimmick they proposed to American Airlines. Well, congrats, here’s your attention: you’re super fucking low. I personally feel bullied by this commercial. Seriously, you’re scumbags. 

So the message is that meat makes you fat and people that eat meat are fat. So calling a bunch of people fat is how you gain…what, exactly? I’m guessing contempt. And they claim they are all about health but we’re talking about elbow room? Where’s the health message? 

If I’m the vegan an omnivore gets seated next to, do they get their $10 back because I’m not skinny? Really they should have to pay $20 to sit next to a fat vegan—we have all the best snacks!

For real, this is sickening. It makes me not want to be vegan. Or at the very least, it makes me question ever using PCRM as a source for information. I used to refer people to their site a lot for info about animal testing and now I’d just be so embarrassed to do that. The cheese ads were bad but I wasn’t going to dismiss the organization completely for one fucked up campaign. But if this is their thing now? No, I don’t want to be associated with a bunch of bullying lowlifes. 

PETA has teamed up with Troma (!) to create this commercial. I know most of us weren’t too keen on the other recent PETA commercial, but how do we feel about this one? I was a big Troma fan as a teen so I’m kind of biased. Really though, who else has seen Killer Condom? That movie rules!

I like this commercial a lot better than that other commercial but do you think it will be effective in awakening empathy in people? It does depict a lot of the realities of factory farming that we’ve heard/seen. But people are so dense and resistent to harsh realities! And this came out in January yet I’m just seeing it now. This isn’t getting as much attention as the ads many of us consider offensive! There is nudity in it but it’s more like the solitary confinement nudity in Oz than sexy nudity. It’s a different way to use nudity, it makes the people appear vulnerable. I can’t believe it’s not getting attention just because Troma made it! But sometimes I’m in my own little world where I assume everyone has the same interests as me and Alan Thicke is president. 

So what are our thoughts on this?

I recently posted a commercial from The Shelter Pet Project that’s totally cute, but this new one is even cuter I think! I wasn’t sure what it had to do with shelter pets but my sis pointed out that it’s like the dog is sitting there normal, not going crazy like people may be imagining shelter pets do. There’s a few more on the site but this is my fave. I love his giggly inflection! He can’t believe how silly his human is!

I saw this commercial on the TV the other day and I was struck by the bittersweet cuteness! So nice to see a commercial like this on prime time TV. Turns out it’s from last year but it’s new to me so here we are. 

It’s from the Shelter Pet Project, a group dedicated to providing good PR for shelter animals. From their site:

The Shelter Pet Project is the result of a collaborative effort between two leading animal welfare groups, The Humane Society of the United States and Maddie’s Fund, and the leading producer of public service advertising (PSA) campaigns, The Ad Council. Our goal is to make shelters the first place potential adopters turn when looking to get a new pet, ensuring that all healthy and treatable pets find loving homes. We do this by breaking down misconceptions surrounding shelter pets and communicating that “A person is the best thing to happen to a shelter pet. Be that person. Adopt.”

Sounds good to me! I think they are onto something. When I was looking to adopt, a lot of friends seemed to have the idea that if you get a shelter pup, it could have all these mental problems or something from its past. But if you raise a pup yourself, it’s going to be perfect? Yeah right. I think we’ve all seen how much people can screw up their biological kids, I’m sure they could do some damage with a puppy. It all depends how you train them once they’re in your care. So give a shelter pet a chance!

I have an idea: Let’s all watch a commercial about how Chipotle’s meat is “all-natural,” and let’s all yell out what about it most offends us. Ready, go:

“Of course, one white dude has a sad and it’s REVOLUTIONARY”
“Any way you farm animals, you’re still FUCKING MURDERING THEM, Chipotle”
“Too bad your stupid parent company sources all its food products from mean and nasty factory farms”
“Pigs on a farm are still in jail”
“You know what would be better than killing animals in a different way? Offering Gardein again”
“Maybe vegans are impossible to please, but this is still whitewashing”

OK, what about you guys?

Mercy for Animals is launching this series of commercials on MTV and other cable networks. They are totally macabre, but pretty tame. They show people buying meat that then turns bloody. Then, all these factory farm images go through the people’s heads.

The images they show though are definitely on the light side, upsetting but far from the worst of what’s out there. Maybe they don’t want to scare people off, right? If it’s too upsetting, a lot of people just shut down. These images aren’t super-disturbing, they are mostly really sad.

My only criticism is that they use mostly the same factory farm images in each commercial. They should show a breadth! To be like, yeah, it’s rampant. Because it is. 

On the ad beat again. This is part of a new campaign from restaurant chain Legal Sea Foods. Pretty fucking hilarious! Just kidding, it blows. Putting aside that it’s mocking animal conservation, it’s just not that funny. Come on, PSAs are such fertile ground for mocking! They could have done a better job. 

Now, not putting aside that it’s mocking animal conservation, the ad might also be funnier if the entirety of marine life wasn’t facing an imminent mass extinction. You know, for what it’s worth. 

But whatevs! Rock on, bros!

Just watch it. It’s really funny (the yelling out the window is so my Figaro) but does it make you want to adopt a dog?