PETA’S latest obnoxious billboard features a fat woman in a bikini that says “SAVE THE WHALES, Lose the Blubber, Go Vegetarian.”
This billboard is offensive, misleading, and encourages fat hatred.
I have contacted PETA about the billboards. The only way to contact them via their site is to report an animal in danger, so I decided to frame my letter in this way. Here’s mine:
I’m a writing in regard to PETA’s billboards in Florida. Because humans are animals, and billboards like yours are size-ist, sexist, and contribute to demonizing a significant portion of society, I consider that putting animals in imminent danger. There are plenty of vegetarians who are thin, fat, healthy, not healthy and every combination of the two. Calling fat women whales does nothing to contribute to the dialogue around animal abuse. It only serves to legitimate hate. If you really care about creating a more loving, peaceful, caring world for animals, including humans, TAKE DOWN THE BILLBOARDS!
Please contact PETA and let them know that fat hate is not an acceptable marketing campaign. Feel free to copy and paste my letter or come up with your own!
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for post. It’s really imformative stuff.
I really like to read.Hope to learn a lot and have a nice experience here! my best regards guys!
SEO–SEO
I f*cking hate PETA. They've been running on pure sexism for at least 10 years. Save the animals, abuse your fellow humans instead.
GREAT blog!
Unfortunately, PETA ruins what respectability they have with ads like this. They have a valid mission, with adolescent tactics.
Mirabella2123 — Beautifully written and so right on! Thanks for sharing your letter here.
HottyTotty — Totally. Vegetarianism does not equal thin and does not equal looking better. It just is. WTF, indeed!
WTF is THIS supposed to mean?
"Vegetarians LOOK and feel better than meat eaters"
That's just wrong and also subjective b/c different ppl have different tastes!
Done:
"I find it horrifically hypocritical that your mission states that you "support animal rights" through "education," and yet you use misinformation and degradation of one specific animal in order to further your cause. I am talking, of course, about your "save the whales" billboards, depicting a fat woman in a bikini. These billboards lead readers to believe that going vegetarian inevitably leads to weightloss, which is patently false. It additionally promotes hatred and discrimination against fat people in general, and more specifically the misogynistic view that women have no value unless we meet some arbitrary definition of physical attractiveness. By playing into cultural (mis)perceptions of health and attractiveness, you not only undermine your own message with false information, but you also alienate potential supporters by insulting who they happen to be. These billboards are an embarrassment to your organization. I hope you take them down immediately, and in the future give more thought to the difference between "edgy" and "insultingly stupid."
Yay! Thanks, dudes! I'm so glad we're all not letting this slide!
Btw, you can also email PETA at this email address: Info@peta.org.
You GO, girl! Smart, sassy, and eloquent. Brava. I must write my own response. Oh, and thanks to Ivan for the HAES billboard link. I LOOOOOOOOVE it!
I copied and pasted the excellent letter you wrote and sent it.
Thanks to everyone for responding!
Even if it were true, I think I'd rather be fat than be a vegetarian!
this is ridiculous. as you said, golda, vegetarianism is definitely not for everyone and doesn't directly correlate to size or health. thanks for creating awareness around this horrific ad – just wrote them a note.
Nice, Ivan!!!
check out this HAES friendly version of the billboard http://queerfatfemme.com/2009/08/18/turning-rage-into-productivity/
Yeah! It's such b.s. Vegetarianism is not a guaranteed road to thinness or health. It's merely a guaranteed road to not eating meat, at least for a while, which can be healthy for some people and not for others. I guess that's too much to fit on a billboard…
I feel like putting up a competing billboard that says "I've been a vegetarian for 20 years…and I got fatter! Whoo hooo!"
Great, Shey. Thanks!
Done. Copied yours and added my own.