For PETA, Sex Doesn't Sell
By Kathryn Pope
PETA is on the prowl.
This past September, these pelt-painting psychopaths applied for the Internet domain peta.xxx.That's right, that triple-x suffix means just what you think—PETA's newest project will be porn.The site, scheduled to launch this month, will be the latest installation in PETA's long history of sexed- up anti-meat–and-fur campaigns. PETA says that it hopes to raise awareness about veganism through a mix of pornography and graphic footage of animals suffering.
Just imagine the possibilities—PETA spokeswoman and porn legend Jenna Jameson gettin' filthy with a few choice vegetables and some vegan whipped cream—then, bam: rabbits hanging from rusty hooks squirming and shrieking in agony, blood gushing from severed limbs while blunt knives peel off their fur and skin. If the juxtaposition weren't so bizarre and grotesque, it might be hilarious.
Despite the collective cringes and gasps from the public, PETA is sticking with this noxious combo.The gang of sickos that comprise its advertising department must feel that pornography spiced up with a little blood and fur is the next logical step towards spreading animal love.
Assuming PETA isn't just trying to piss people off by ruining perfectly good porn, then it's just another promotion revolving around one maxim: sex sells.
Sex might push clothes, music, and Budweiser, but PETA takes erotic advertising to exploitive levels. While the aforementioned products have something (or everything) to do with gettin' it on, animal rights and sex are totally incongruous. PETA makes a parody of itself and undermines its own validity by brandishing sex like a freshman girl trying to get into Chucks.
On top of that, PETA's attempts at seduction are cheap, pathetic, and more than a bit creepy. "When people first visit the site, it will be very enticing, and once they go just a little bit deeper, that's when they'll be confronted with images that we hope will make them stop and think," said Lindsay Rajt, PETA's associate director of campaigns, in a September statement to Reuters. How very cunning. Show people tits, and they'll do anything you want.
Besides using the libido as a tool for deception, PETA's irrelevant and counterproductive use of sex compromises its legitimate goals of promoting animal rights.
In 2009, NBC prohibited a PETA commercial from airing during the Super Bowl, citing "a level of sexuality exceeding our standards." PETA's offensive use of graphic sex was banned fromTV, meaning their animal rights message didn't reach millions as intended. PETA's sex obsession has not only veered from, but undermined, its agenda.The commercial depicted half- naked women pleasuring themselves with a pumpkin, a bunch of asparagus, broccoli, and some collard greens with the caption: "Vegetarians have better sex." The absurdity continues. I highly doubt PETA actually calculated this "better sex." The equation for such a subjective experience would be insurmountable: average number of orgasms experienced in a year by random samplings of vegetarians and omnivores, divided by the total number of sexual encounters per individual, taking into account the typical age and skill of sexual partners and discounting all instances of vegan and non-vegan sexual contact, maybe. Or maybe PETA is full of shit.
Middle school boys new to masturbation beware: your ambiguous searches may lead you to something far more disturbing than the mags you tried to snag from under your older brother's bed.