Comments on: I will not live in a vegan bubble

By: One Plus Negative One Equals Zero: A Response to PETA’s Rapey Ad | Connect The Dots Movement

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 23:20:21 +0000

[...] I Will Not Live in a Vegan Bubble [...]

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 02:18:40 +0000

Haha, I only recently learned what the term “bokeh” meant, and I had to look it up a minute ago to remind myself. =-)
I think you’re right about letting the organization know, but I might just be a little too jaded to have been unable to do that originally. I’ll try to send along my thoughts to them over the next little while.
I have not funded PETA to my knowledge, and, on at least one recent occasion, I’ve avoided ordering from another group that openly supported them. Originally, I had a problem with their sexist ads and their apparent dependence on such tactics to promote a cause that I feel has so much more going for it than most products that rely on sex. In a similar vein, I’ve avoided promoting American Apparel as much as I can. Of course, with this campaign, which honestly should not have gone past the first marketing brainstorm session (or maybe should not have even been uttered at all), they went further than just relying on women in lettuce bikinis.
In a way, I guess it’s also sad that it had to be this point where I decided to truly step away from associating with them. The past campaigns should have been enough, but for some reason, this was my breaking point.

By: candice

candice — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 02:07:54 +0000

That is some freaking sweet bokeh, BTW, and totally goes with your fruit banner

By: candice

candice — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 02:05:17 +0000

It’s probably more the ‘people tuning them out’, I don’t know. I have seen a petition already, and I have never seen that happen before. I still think you have to let the organization know that either you will no longer be supporting them with donations…if you are, or as I told them, that they are making it really hard for me to share any links or posts related to their organization, which is a really tough call, because I believe those campaigns are important. For the life of me I can’t wrap my head around the fact that nobody within their organization stopped them from putting out that unbelievably ill-conceived campaign ad.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 01:32:38 +0000

Hi Candice,
Thanks for the feedback. I agree that there are plenty of vegans and other folks who criticize PETA overall, but my concern is that there seem to be less than usual concerned about this recent campaign. It scares me that, although a lot of previous campaigns were offensive for one reason or another, this one seems to hit on so many key issues, and a lot of folks have not noticed them. Perhaps they’re accustomed to tuning PETA out, or they just don’t see the point in continuing to try and change the organization’s methods, but my fear is that they just don’t see or care about the underlying issues.
As for approaching PETA about it, that would be one of the major reasons I’m concerned. As far as I know, the best response they have given is that the campaign is playful and that is made obvious by her smile at the end. To me, that smile only adds to the frustration that the whole ad creates. To suggest that a woman who is in poor physical condition is obviously alright with it because she smiles, and, therefore, approves of her boyfriend’s actions, is only supporting so many cultural ideas of sex, woman’s rights, and a pile of other things. So, sadly, I don’t see the point in contacting PETA about this. They don’t get the concern, but I’m hoping other people will if I approach them instead.
That being said, I am happy to know that you are using your voice to try and change things, both with PETA and with T.O.F.U. Whether or not we agree on everything, it’s better than being silent.

hope all is well,
Ryan

By: candice

candice — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:08:19 +0000

Well, some of us, instead of bitching on facebook and trying to smear the organization as a whole, just contacted PETA and told them directly what we thought of their ad campaign. What I’ve been seeing is quite the opposite of what you’ve related here. I see vegans more than happy to jump in on any criticism of PETA.