Entry 13: PETA

PETA is really annoying. I'm 110% for their message, animal abuse is never okay, but sometimes PETA does too much. All of their ads say the same thing: don't wear stuff made out of animal fur or skin. A fairly simple idea, but very interestingly advertised by PETA. Most of their ads feature well known female celebrities or...actresses (if you know what I mean) wearing not much but their very own skin. 

Ew, what? No.

There are even some for the ladies: 

I am okay with this.

These aren't even that bad for PETA. There's a whole campaign of "I'd rather go naked than wear fur" for women, and "ink not mink" for men that seemed like too much to show on here (http://www.peta.org/mediacenter/ads/print-ads-skins.aspx). Shock value is definitely the focus with these ads (especially that Joanna Krupa one--PETA just stahp). By using celebrities many people would recognize, and putting their names on all the posters, they make peolple notice more than if it was just random naked models. The nakedness also kind of makes them jump out a bit. 

Some needs present in these ads are the needs for autonomy and affiliation. If you don't wear fur you'll stand out from the crowd of inhumane wastes of space who call themselves people, but you'll also be part of this great movement of attractive naked people. Although they use sex to grab peoples' attention, it doesn't seem like the need for sex is really tapped into. Except this one: 

Yeah you ugly loser, if you aren't constantly pressed up against hot members of the opposite sex to stay warm, you really need to get your life back on track. There's this abstract idea established by all of their ads that not wearing fur and not wearing animal skin will make you hot. That's pretty ridiculous, and doesn't have anything to do with ethics or animal abuse. 

Some techniques are testimonial, sex appeal, and in some, gestalt. (Like these): 

The testimonial is self-explanatory. These ads basically have someone standing there saying they don't wear fur; that wouldn't carry any weight if the people weren't known or admired somehow. The sex appeal is also pretty self-explanatory. All the celebrities they use are mostly naked and all of them are attractive. 

Except maybe this guy.

PETA's purpose is a noble one, so it makes the ridiculousness of their ads more justified, but it seems like the focus has gone from animals to people. They've gotten a lot of publicity for their print ads and they use it to get more publicity, not to spread more awareness about animal abuse. After going through all these ads, I don't know anything more about animal abuse than I did before, I know what a lot of celebrities look like without clothes on. They could do so much more with all the attention they get, but instead they keep throwing the same ad at everyone, with a different naked person on it. So, I don't think they are effective at getting their point across.