A Look at Peta's Public Relations Programs

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is one of the most recognizable organizations within the animal rights movement, due in part to their attention grabbing antics and controversial advertisements. While PETA has been successful in creating visual rhetoric that generally appeals to the audience’s cognitive reasoning and emotions they are often not successful in catalyzing actual change in behaviour.

The truth about PETA, is that they do not want all animals to roam free. They want the population of dogs and cats to be reduced through spaying and neutering. They would like people to adopt animals from pounds or animal shelters, rather than buying from pet shops or breeders. They do claim to be the number one animal activist groups out there. Are they who they claim to be? What they don't advertise, is that

In the article “PETA urges L.A. to ban all wild animals from circus performances”, Alexia Fernandez highlights the speed with which animal activists go in order to free wild animals from being used in circuses. According to the spokesman for the Ringling Bros, after L.A. “banned circuses from using bullhooks to manage elephants” in 2014, PETA activists demanded that circuses remove wild animals from their performances and Barnum & Bailey Circus begged to differ by arguing that animals in their facilities are taken good care of and are not mistreated (Fernandez, 2016). In conclusion, both sides of the arguments believe that neither is misinformed.

PETA, though it does many things, has four main objectives. They focus on animal cruelty on factory farms, which are also known as confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and intensive livestock operations (ILOs). These farms are more worried about profits and high volumes of goods than they are about human health, safe food, the environment, fair treatment of animals, and the surrounding economy (Factory Farms). PETA also focuses on cruel treatment to animals in laboratories, in the fur trade, and in the entertainment industry (like Khartoum). They also work on projects helping birds, beavers, and abused backyard dogs, as some examples. To reach the public, PETA uses many tactics, including working “through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and direct action.” (PETA: Official Page). PETA tries to reach the public any way possible.

Recall the line, “Help control the pet population, have your pets spayed or neutered.” Famous game show host Bob Barker recited this tagline to conclude every episode of the longest running game show aired, The Price is Right. Although notorious for hosting The Price is Right for thirty-five years, Bob Barker is also a well-known animal rights activist. Barker didn’t become famous without enduring a few speed bumps in his life. However through his dedication, determination, and doggedness, Barker has built a reputation and has made himself an established figure in today’s society.

PETA, an animal rights organization, has been known over the past several decades to post racy ads. In June of 2013, PETA launched an ad with the purpose of getting its audience to go vegan. The ad is a photo of a toddler with a lit cigar in his mouth with the quote next to it, “You Wouldn’t Let Your Child Smoke. Like smoking, eating meat increases the risk of heart disease and cancer”. The ad included “Go vegan!” in the bottom right corner with the organizations logo next to it. PETA is trying to send a message to its viewers to stop eating animals. The attention drawing ad evokes an emotional response, contains logical reasoning and is from a credible source.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or PETA for short is the largest animal rights organization in the world.

Imagine this; You are wearing blinders next to your eyes, like the horses that pull the Amish buggy. You can’t see left, you can’t see right, you can only see straight forward to your set destination. This is how I imagine PETA and its followers when they wrote their most recent article about the FFA and their views about it. They only saw one view of the FFA and that was the only way they promoted it. You would think they would be thanking the FFA for all they do against animal abuse and their work of promoting animals as more than just “food” or a “project”

There are an abundance of homeless, abused, and overlooked animals in the world who are in need of care. In order to help these animals, the ASPCA, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, organization created a commercial in the intent to raise money for these animals. They are addressing the part of the audience who are animal lovers. While the ASPCA commercial has a noble cause, it uses depressing scenes of homeless animals to play people’s emotions and has a celebrity endorsement to build trustworthiness in their cause while giving very few facts to support the commercial.

As one of the most well-recognized animal rights organizations, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, better known as PETA, uses different rhetorical techniques in order to convey their message that “it is the right of all beings - human and non-human - to be free of harm.” (peta.org) PETA has made a significant impact on the animal rights movement over the past 36 years through their persistence, campaigning, and advocating for animal rights. According to PETA’s website they focus their attention on the four areas which produce the greatest amount of animal suffering: factory farms, the clothing trade, laboratories, and the entertainment industry. “Creative appeals of an advertisement [determine] the persuasive style of the message content. Message content consists of what is stated in the ad as well as the manner in which it was said. Persuasive or creative appeals of advertisements have been depicted in numerous ways including fear, humor, sex, and intellectual appeals” (Bebko, and Sciulli 23). PETA fights for ethical advancements with regard to humane treatment for animals while attempting to elicit the same compassion a person would have for another human being. It is the goal of PETA’s unorthodox rhetoric in videos, exposes, protests and campaigns to acknowledge animals rights issues to

Animal lives are on the line and human action is the key to their survival. According to The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, also known as the ASPCA, “Approximately 6.5 million companion animals enter U.S. animal shelters nationwide every year, of those 1.5 million will be euthanized” (ASPCA.org). The main goals of the website are to bring awareness to animal welfare concerns, offer solutions to those concerns, and to gain public support for the organization. The website is effective because it is visually appealing, educational, and inspirational.

According to the ASPCA website, every sixty seconds an animal is abused. Abuse can be in the form of beating, neglecting, or shearing for fur. Animal abuse is a crime that happens far too often in this country. Many cases of animal abuse go undocumented because dogs, cats, horses, birds, sheep, rabbits, etc. do not have a voice. Animal rights organizations try giving these animals a voice to stop horrible abuse. The Humane Society, ASPCA, and Peta display various images, choose specific diction, and express tone to motivate their audience to contribute to their campaign. These campaigns inform people through their advertisements about the issues occurring by using similar and different methods.

Despite being labeled as an animal rights organization in the United States, both PETA and the ASPCA (two of the largest groups in the US) have favored funding over the original mission statement their organizations created. One way that these groups are able to receive their funding is through obscure and controversial protests. For instance, PETA uses in person protests rather than creating commercials to lower their cost on creating material, and relies on the media to record and broadcast their protests. Through these protests, PETA is able to gain a total revenue of upwards of 67 million dollars as of last year (PETA, Financial Reports). In 2003, PETA conducted a exhibit that chose to relate chickens to the value and importance of Jewish Holocaust victims.

PETA’s website have so many things that you can do and find out about and you have the options to volunteer, work at PETA, donate, or intern at PETA (PETA). The way that they do this is by having a big advertisement about animal cruelty and they also have plenty of pictures of animals being treated terribly because that way you can see their point of view and join them out of sympathy or common interest. In my opinion, I feel like PETA uses the prognostic and motivational frame. The reason for motivational frame is because they want to motivate you to join their protest events and protest against animal cruelty. There is this one incident where PETA wrote a letter to Homeland Security to stop the race because it is animal cruelty for forcing dogs to run more than a thousand miles in the ice cold weather (O’Keefe). They take action for what they feel are wrong and immediately take action to it. Also, I feel like their solution to everything is basically stop the animal cruelty by being vegan, treating animals with respect, and don’t wear them around your

In today’s society, our bodies have become the front image in all aspect of our lives.. Healthy living styles and tips have exploded all over media across the United States. Veganism is one of the upcoming lifestyles that thousands of families around the countries have adopted into their eating habits. Beyond the health benefits of cutting out any and all animal products, veganism has become the face to animal abuse, especially in the produce, handbag, and makeup industry. Companies like People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) create projects and advertisements to encourage people to go vegan. Recently, PETA has connected with Traci Bingham,a famous TV actor, to launch a digital and poster advertisement. The advertisement displays Bingham’s naked body painted like the parts of farm factory animals used for produce in supermarkets. The advertisement “All animals have the same parts” seeks to use ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos to argue that animals such as cattle have the same body parts as people, and therefore are of equal value to human. Traci Bingham’s credibility with the sponsorship of PETA use the image of a naked woman to draw the desire of veganism to both men and women in an era of health, fitness, and equality.