sea kittens? as if cats didn't have enough issues.

i like animals, but this is not the first time i am going to have to tell PETA to give it. the hell. up. case in point? sea kittens. that's right, you heard me. SEA KITTENS. not to be confused with the sbux 'Melusine'/mermaid issue, this is not a feline with questionable lower halves. this is PETA's attempt to make fish cuddly so you may not want to EAT THEM.

because, as the site says, 'who could possibly want to put a hook through a sea kitten?'

there are a few things fundamentally wrong with this:

1 -- we eat fish. short of rumours in Chinatown, we do not eat cats. it is hard to link my eating habits between the two. i will not suddenly go vegetarian (and even some vegetarians still eat fish) because i look at Mahi Mahi and think "meow."

2 -- not to mention, i don't fish (as in, the sport). i also don't hunt cats, which i suspect is even less of the population than fishers. so the specific target is... what? fishers? vegetarians who need to go all out? all people who should stop eating fish? the idea is to stop the fishing of 'sea kittens' but the application falls flat.

3 -- the website looks like it is aimed at 5-year-olds. design my own sea kitten? ...for real right now? hard to resist when the link is a cartoon of a girl bear-hugging a trophy fish. yes. because when i go fishing, it's my 5-year-old daughter who's helping me get the hook out of the mouth. do it for the kids.

4 -- and the clincher for me -- cats have their own branding issues. PETA is rebranding fish as sea kittens. if they really wanted to go all out, they should have been "sea puppies." man's best friend. as it is, the cat people are trying to rebrand cats in order to house them.

that's at least somewhat noble. or intelligible. rebrand cats as companions instead of loners to house felines, since they are notoriously harder to get adoptions for than dogs. but fish? i can't tell what the message is that i can act on. stop fishing? give a stuffed fish to my 5 year old? stop eating fish? open an aquarium? ...get a colouring book?

[PS: speaking of that, how about a sea kittens bedtime story?]

PETA panties not in a twist

talk about shitty vetting, especially considering PETA hasn't shied away from making political references: PETA's new nude ad sports Aya Sugimoto, a Japanese singer/actress/erotic novel author.

problem? she still sports leather because "leather production is different from fur production."

this sort of thing just further goes to show that the I'd Rather Go Naked campaign is really on its way out. i just don't think it's authentic to PETA any more. the shock value has worn off and it's become yet another mildly-safe-for-work-ad where folks can look at ladybits in the name of some cause, when it won't actually get folks to stop buying fur (or leather).

i think if they moved more in a direction akin to the "political" ad--that is, something that's intriguing, humourous, yet somehow informative, that would be a better solution. it's like Supersize Me. you can tell folks for ever and ever that fast food isn't good for you. but if you show the video, if you make them understand in an image, that impact is more profound than any celeb "star power" you can throw at me.

then again, i have an intellect over that of a horny 13 year old.

because pigs are trademarked, duh.

"If you've been on planet Earth in the last 24 hours, you've probably heard the phrase "If you put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig" more times than you can count. Well, we at PETA would like to put our own spin on this phrase and let everyone know that there should never be any real reason for lipstick on a pig unless it's because you've just given a pig a big kiss for being so darn cute." see more here.

i think, despite its political nature, that this approach is a good one for PETA. i actually wished they had thought of it before people decided to get up in arms over mammals in lipstick, metaphorically speaking (because we all know the GOP has a monopoly on the animal kingdom in rouge).

something that never quite made sense to me was the laborious use of half-naked women against animal cruelty. i mean, i get the shock value, and like anything else, if sex sells, why not use it to sell something worthwhile, like animal rights? i get that. but i didn't get what naked women had to DO with making me concerned about animals.

these kinds of ads, showing (in this case) pigs as loveable cuddle mongers in a near-grotesque Cosmopolitan socialite mask goes straight to the heart of the matter much more clearly. at least if you feel animals should be saved out of cuteness, and let's face it, cute is in. look at the news.

and if you're really still that heartless, check out the bacon links i've found. because apparently bacon is the new penguin. but really, check out the bacon flowchart (wtf?). okay. so where's the bacon flavored lipstick?

new Greyhound murder ads, PETA.

first impression: poor form, i'd argue. found here. what do you think? good way to steal the hype and make people draw connections between humans and animals--or is it just too soon? (or just too stupid?)