Shock Advertising – PETA

The PETA Foundation is a UK-based charity dedicated to protecting the rights of all animals.

PETA works through public education, research, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement and protest campaigns.

PETA often use celebrities in their campaigns who are often naked to relate to the line “I would rather go naked than wear fur” however I am going to focus on how PETA are well-known for their graphic and shocking advertisements which have caused chaos and even a public uproar in some circumstances.

PETA really outdid themselves when they created this poster above. The simple idea of empathy has been taken to a whole new level by hanging this woman like she was a piece of meat which is disturbing but once you get over the body and the blood you then start to wonder why are we so shocked when we see this woman but we aren’t affected by the body of an animal which has been cut open. This is the intention that PETA had, making you question your reaction and it works.

This image using Spanish-born celebrity Elen Rivas to campaign against bullfighting was banned from some magazines but has the same principle as the previous picture. PETA more often than not put an image of a human in place of the animal to show equality and asks you why does this poster shock you and offend you just because it is a human instead of an animal?

A group of protesters in New York City who were part of PETA covered themselves in fake blood and lay almost naked on a giant meat tray. This was supposed to compare carnivorism to cannibalism. This is a very disturbing image because of the amount of blood which is covering these ‘corpses’ and everyone was so shocked that these bodies were just on show and packaged ready to be eaten. Again PETA are showing equality between animals and humans by saying by eating an animal you may as well be eating a human.

FUR IS MURDER.

Feminists went ‘bonkers’ when this commercial popped up, depicting a woman getting beaten for her coat. This is supposed to show you one of the risks of wearing fur in a very brutal and disturbing way.