PETA Shames Overweight People With “Save The Whales” Campaign
Filed under: animals, campaigns, food & drink — Michael d'Estries @ 12:20 pm
August 17th 2009
Attention overweight people everywhere: PETA would like you to know that it considers you to be a “whale”.
The animal rights organization is promoting vegetarian diets to overweight Americans (an estimated 64% of the population) by insulting them. I’m not sure that’s the best angle — but clearly, PETA is never shy about shooting straight from the, ahem, gut. Unfortunately, there are people out there facing obesity everyday — and not just because their diet is at fault. One woman wrote a dieting website to complain saying,
“My family was visiting, and I was planning on taking them to the beach to enjoy the beautiful day when i saw a billboard that made me want to cry. It says “Save the Whales,” with a picture of an overweight woman in the foreground.”
“We all sat there and stared at it for a minute and everyone in the car was silent. No one wanted to mention my weight. I laughed it off as usual, but it really had made me so embarrassed, so self conscious and so ashamed about my weight that I dropped off my family at the oceanfront and left to go home, making the excuse that I wasn’t feeling well.”
Following PETA’s logic, Deceiver put together a list of vegetarian/vegan foods that would definitely not contribute to a more slimmer you.
In my opinion, there are much better ways of helping people change their diets for the better without blatantly insulting them. This ad campaign just looks like another cruel taunt. Thoughts?
I lost weight eating portion size meat, carbs, and proper exercising. So I disagree with Petas advertisement. I respect peta for their opinion on saving animals but I love chicken and will continue eating chicken.
I’m just a poor meat eating fat lady, so help me out here – is being a smug, self-righteous jerk actually a requirement for vegetarians and PETA members, or is it just strongly recommended?
I think this billboard is fine. And what was mentioned earlier, PETA often bluntly says what is on their minds, and this is no different. Why should we remain quite about the “fat” people out there? They know they are fat and this billboard is promoting loosing weight and possibly saving animals too! Well done PETA…well done.
Ok, lets all take a deep breath and repeat after me… PETA is *not* synonymous with vegetarian.
Being a vegetarian means you don’t eat meat, in many cases because of health concerns, and a desire to eat healthier.
Being a member of PETA apparently means you’re a sanctimonious douche-bag who likes slamming other people for the hell of it.
Don’t slam vegetarians just because PETA happens to advocate a vegetarian diet to support their own agenda.
i agree with you alot i may be only 16 but this sign is so wrong i cant belive they did this i mean i love whales but it doesnt mean you have to diss overweight people
Trying to convince people to go veg simply out of health concerns or losing weight is not the way to go. Most people who go to veg to loose weight do not stick with it. Ethical veg*ns are most likely to stick with it. Why not some billboards and advertisements that show animals suffering and with messages about what happens to those animals instead of naked chicks or anti-fat advertisements?
I AM A FAT VEGETARIAN. and i can tell pee-ta exactly where to put their sign…
I think that what some people miss are the BMI guidelines are not the end and be all of things. Have you ever wondered where someone like Serna Williams falls on that chart? Overweight is not always that big nor is obese. People that fall into these categories are not always people who do not eat correctly and exercise. Some just aren’t in a lower calore intake than calories burned state right now. That does not mean that they are inhaling burgers at every turn.
You don’t know a person’s history in order to assume that the state that they are in is automatically an unhealthy one.For all you know that person was even bigger and has reduced their risks by changing their lifestyle so get off yoru high horse about just wanting people to be healthy. You’re not so worried about that size 2 chick who eats almost nothing, gets no nutrients, and lives off of coffee and cigarettes so don’t tell me that your anger and hate comes from wanting to see people be healthy or less stress on insurance companies. If that were true you’d be mad at every person who went into McDonald’s, buys Fritos, or picks up a 2 liter not just those who happen to show their bad eating habits on the outside.
I don’t agree with insulting your target audience on issues like this, especially when the goal is to change minds.
However, “we must not avoid with our eyes what they endure with their bodies”.
The saddness an overweight person feels is not more valuable than the pain an animal feels during slaughter, and therefore does not move me to sympathize with an overweight human more than an animal whose fate is sealed by inhumane and unethical systems entrenched in our society.
It’s probably quite difficult to live an obese life in modern society–I would not be able to adequately express the trials and tribulations an obese person faces because I am not obese–but it’s significantly more painful to be an animal in our society. That’s the bottom line.
But when attempting to shift someone’s mindset on hot-button issues, insults don’t generally work.
The majority of the people responding are insensitive jerks. There are many reasons people are overweight — some are lazy and have no excercise and poor diet — others have chemical imbalances that cause weight gain and make it hard to lose weight. I have never met an overweight person who is HAPPY that they are overweight. I think this ad is completely insensitive and really lowers my opinion of PETA. They can do great things to help animals – but this is not a way to get support.
I can’t believe people allow others to influence their lives like a drug. Are you SERIOUS???? Listen, women, men and children…if your embarassed over something you have no control over…?>then you, I and anyone else out there may as well, go outside with our stanley shovel, dig a hole, jump in and have someone bury us. Get real. We are no less anything else other than what God created us to be. Your life is maybe just for one person to come to realize the truth. And THAT will set them free. Cry over a billboard??? Lose a day to spend with family and friends because you mis-interpreted a billboard>??? complain of “rights?”…because PETA tries to show us that animals are killed for human pleasure? Think about it…how many men or women do you know who hunt deer, or moose, or bear, or rabbit and take it home, skin it, then eat it? Are they really that poor that they “have to” go and hunt for food? I don’t think so. There are other means of protein available to us. God intended men to hunt when it was necessary to eat. We live in an abundant country where no one needs to hunt unless your living off the land. And in that, even a cow would do, that they don’t have to go hunt deer, moose, bear or buffalo. Get a grip on your own life and stop caring so much about what one other person may think of you and think on how much you think of yourself. How dare you, beautiful woman…let another person or entity smack you down to their size.???
May God bless us all.
HAHAHAHHAHAHA well what a coincidence, my friend and I call these fat girls at school whales