How far will people go to get their point across? Dozens of naked women spelled out “No War” with their bodies last week in protest of violence in the Middle East. How far is too far? Perhaps clich?, but it is a valid question in this age of bringing decency to its limits and juxtaposed to intense political correctness. I think that the stronger pressure to be politically correct has backlashed like hoards of unruly rebellious teenagers saying and doing things for the sole purpose of pissing people off, and getting attention just the same.
Perhaps when you think of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) advertising, you think of Pamela Anderson wearing lettuce and being provocative while urging consumers to “Go Veg!” or a dozen models standing naked declaring “I’d rather wear nothing than wear fur!” These advertisements use sex appeal to promote vegetarianism. The “Got Beer?” campaign was heavily marketed on college campuses, as are most of PETA’s campaigns, to sway people from drinking milk, as dairy farms are considered cruel by the group.
“Got Beer?” and its supporting Web site milksucks.com appealed to the beer-chugging masses at college campuses across the country, but was it ethical? At the traditional college or university, the age of students ranges from 18 to 22. The majority of students are not of legal drinking age. Yes, you may be getting this new generation to boycott milk, but are you encouraging illegal and potentially dangerous activity? How many underage college students die each year in alcohol related deaths? Don’t get me wrong: I am not blaming any of these deaths on PETA. They are just doing their non-profit animal-loving duty in the way that will catch the most attention, the most eyes.
But, I thought the campaign was irresponsible. Sophomoric, if you will. However, their newest campaign is quite a bit more extreme.
“The Holocaust on Your Plate” campaign consists of 10′ by 6′ panels touring the country showing photos of emaciated, dying, or dead Jews in Nazi concentration camps next to photos of cows, pigs, and chickens in factory farms.
The campaign kicked off on the West Coast Feb. 28. Within the week that the campaign and its Web site www.masskilling.com has been released, there has been uproar from organizations and individuals across the country.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) National Director and a Holocaust Survivor Abraham H. Foxman issued a statement calling the campaign “abhorrent,” and PETA’s efforts to gain support from the Jewish community “outrageous, offensive and takes chutzpah to new heights.” Foxman did say abusive treatment of animals should be opposed, “but cannot and must not be compared to the Holocaust.”
“The Holocaust on Your Plate” organizer and Youth Outreach Coordinator Matt Prescott is Jewish and members of his family died in concentration camps, a PETA press release pointed out. The Associated Press also reported that the campaign is funded by a Jewish philanthropist. Prescott told the AP, “The fact is all animals feel pain, fear and loneliness. We’re asking people to recognize that what Jews and others went through in the Holocaust is what animals go through every day in factory farms.”
Jewish philanthropist or no, the Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council Fred S. Zeidman issued a statement Tuesday saying that PETA obtained the photos for its campaign from the Holocaust Museum deceitfully. “We deplore this exploitation of the Holocaust and reprehensible misuse of Holocaust materials.”
The goal of PETA was to raise awareness about the horrible conditions that meat animals must endure before their eventual slaughter. This campaign definitely has raised awareness, but is their true message being lost? Will these images make people realize how horrible it is for chickens, or will the focus be more toward the harrowing photos of the concentration camps and whether the campaign is anti-Semitic?
Most of the people I showed the images to said even though it is awful what the animals go through, it should not be compared to the Holocaust.
The focus of PETA’s campaign, as is most of their campaigns, is college campuses. Institutes of higher learning are typically regarded as the center for intellectual conversation, contemplation of world issues, and open-mindedness and progressive thinking. I think that it is key for PETA to concentrate their controversial efforts on campuses. In these places we will not find the right or wrong answer to these issues, but instead engage in hearty conversation over a coffee and bagel from the Snack Shack, or passionately debate in Bleacher’s or the student center or in someone’s dorm or living room. Bring us these issues that are difficult. We want to use our minds.
I initially was repulsed by the campaign, with the extreme images and the blatant disrespect for the people who perished in the Holocaust. Then I opened my mind a bit to try to figure out why the organization would think this campaign is ok, and even more how it was conceived by someone Jewish himself, who lost family members during that time. I thought about it in respect to my business background, and the old marketing cliche any publicity is good publicity. I thought about how passionate the PETA folks must be to truly believe the parallels. I thought about how painful the campaign must be for survivors and their families, including famed survivor Elie Weisel, who was actually in one of the photos in the exhibit and didn’t know it till last week.
I pondered all of these things, and I still do, but I think that this campaign was over the top, particularly in this environment with Israel and Palestine at war, with underlying distrust of Jewish people slowly surfacing in politics (i.e. Jewish conspiracy to plot Sept. 11, etc.)
This campaign not only belittles the tragedy that was the Holocaust, but also is so extreme that it obscures the message they are trying to get across. The initial shock value may not allow people to sit back and ponder the comparison that is trying to be made. And, there is the chance that they will come up with the fact that Hitler himself was a vegetarian, and find the campaign baseless in that respect.