PETA Boyfriend Went Vegan Ad: Campaign Pairs Up Violence And Veganism

The Huffington Post Canada   First Posted: 02/15/2012 5:47 pm Updated: 02/16/2012 9:50 am

Animal rights campaigners PETA are causing controversy yet again.

The campaign's latest push on veganism called, "Boyfriend Went Vegan," part of their, "Boyfriend Went Vegan and Knocked the Bottom Out of Me"(BWVAKTBOOM) campaign, features a 30-second clip of a pantless woman wearing a neck brace and not much else, and painfully walking down the street.

The narrator, actor Kevin Nealon, intones, "BWVAKTBOOM is a painful condition that occurs when boyfriends go vegan and can suddenly bring it like a tantric porn star." The spot ends with "Jessica" smiling and throwing a bag of vegetables to her boyfriend.

"The piece is tongue-in-cheek," Lindsay Rajt, PETA's associate director of campaigns and outreach, told Yahoo News. "People who watch the ad all the way through see the woman has a mischievous smile. She's happy to go back with him. It's playful."

Not everyone agrees with the humour in the ad, and instead are pointing out the problems with PETA's use of sexual abuse and domestic violence as a means of delivering their message. SlutWalk Toronto, the group that started the global movement against sexual assault, says PETA needs to learn that veganism may be sexy, but sexual violence isn't.

"We're disgusted by PETA's recent ad and campaign for pulling on the realities of sexual and domestic violence to get support," they wrote on their Facebook page.

Even experts in the field think they may have gone too far. "PETA is going for shock value here," Michael Learmonth, digital editor at Advertising Age, wrote in an email to Yahoo News. "But I don't think portraying women as beat up physically is a good idea, even in jest."

This is not the first time PETA created controversy with their campaigns. Recently the group’s anti-milk Super Bowl ad, which was banned, featured a group of young women pulling off their shirts to reveal their udders.

This BWVAKTBOOM ad went up on Youtube on February 6, and already brought in over one million views. Even commenters have mixed feelings.

"This is funny as hell. I don't see how people equate this with domestic violence. When you first start watching it you see her in a neck brace -- my first thought is a car accident. Later you realize they were going too fast and hard doggy-style. Where does domestic violence fit in?" says commenter OMKeller.

Other viewers are more in line with the opinions of SlutWalk Toronto. "The positive portrayal of women getting physically injured by their boyfriends. Yes, I get the "joke" of amazing sexual prowess by veganism, but nevertheless, you've ended up with a campaign where you try to get people to do a particular thing, and then show that thing by boyfriends causing girls to wear neck braces and eyepatches. It's very counter-productive," says Youtube user BlackMoonLilith.

What do you think? Is this ad making light of sexual abuse, or is it just plain funny? Let us know in the comments below.


FOLLOW HUFFPOST FOOD
Animal rights campaigners PETA are causing controversy yet again. The campaign's latest push on veganism called, "Boyfriend Went Vegan," part of their, "Boyfriend Went Vegan and Knocked the Bottom...
Animal rights campaigners PETA are causing controversy yet again. The campaign's latest push on veganism called, "Boyfriend Went Vegan," part of their, "Boyfriend Went Vegan and Knocked the Bottom...
 
 
  • Comments
  • 171
  • Pending Comments
  • 0
  • View FAQ
Post Comment Preview Comment
To reply to a Comment: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to.
View All
Favorites
Recency  | 
Popularity
Page: 1 2 3 4 5  Next ›  Last »  (5 total)
11:03 AM on 02/22/2012
I like this version of the PETA better (same ad, completely different voice over.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Eod3GpxQAk
12:53 AM on 02/21/2012
The "funniest" thing about this campaign is how thoroughly PETA is editing comments on Youtube. Notice how the anti-ad comments on the site are unintelligible, full of run-on sentence or emphasize extreme pro meat messages, while the majority of the comments are pro-vegan, all while the ad has a an approximately 70 percent disapproval rating. They have deleted three of my comments and left one that stated that they were editing the content (huh?). They have also deleted intelligently stated comments that received about a thousand "likes" on the first day of the advertisement. So I suppose they don't even have the bal-err, I mean, brussel sprouts, to stand behind their ad in the face of intelligent opposition. Way to help the animals, PETA. First through euthanization, and now by turning people off from a legitimate agenda. And this is coming from a concerned omnivore who could be convinced to cut down on the meat a little if I was approached by healthy, well-meaning messages, and not some anorexic, pale, raccoon-eyed abused girl who loves sex so rough that another neck/body brace sounds like, omg, fun!
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
O K Ali
Wash your hands, seriously.
11:57 AM on 02/20/2012
I'm the last person to stick up for PETA, but where was the violence?
11:57 PM on 02/19/2012
Whatever it takes to bring the constant abuse of animals to light. People should take some responsibility for the suffering they are causing.
10:05 PM on 11/01/2012
Too bad PETA euthanizes most animals they receive within 2 days of bringing them in- which isn't nearly enough time to determine whether an animal is or isn't suited for adoption.
Because they support all domesticated animals being released into the wild- animals who wouldn't be able to survive, who have been domesticated(breed and species wise) for hundreds of thousands of years.
Because most of their money is used to make advertisements and their controversial computer games(which, they should be sued for by Nintendo since that's the big one they target.)
Just because they're trying to promote veganism doesn't give them the right to joke about abuse, be sexist/over sexualize women to get attention, or use body shaming methods to get a point across.
Just because you're for animal rights doesn't give you the right to take human needs and emotions and discard them.

Now, I am NOT saying that animal rights movements, veganism and vegetarianism are a joke or shouldn't be taken seriously. God, no. I love animals, love them to death. It's just that PETA is the LAST organization that I'll ever take seriously, donate to, or support. They're a load of bullshit who people seem to always follow blindly without doing full, deep research or let themselves be lied to about it.
photo
butchcliff
The future is unwritten
07:11 AM on 02/19/2012
Each time peta puts out a new message, it's more inane than the last. They should spend more of their $mils on true animal care, instead of bashing humanity
12:31 AM on 02/19/2012
I get their point, but I don't like the commercial. Maybe if it were the other way around and it was the guy wearing the neck brace and the girlfriend being the over sexual one it would be more funny? It's a weird and uncomfortable commercial, I can see how people could be touchy about it
02:52 PM on 02/18/2012
This is just another example of how PETA has taken their love of animals in lieu of love for humanity.

I'm all for ethical treatment of animals, but that does mean I HAVE to eat nothing but beans and shoots.
07:49 AM on 02/19/2012
No it doesn't mean that.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
oaoroho
02:49 PM on 02/18/2012
PETA is just doing their best to make themselves more of a damn joke then they have already it seems. Lol, what's next I wonder.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
kareemachan
watashi ha tororu ga oroka da to omoi masu。
12:16 PM on 02/18/2012
PETA took leave of its collective senses a long time ago.
photo
CarlyQ
Without followers, evil cannot spread.
11:37 AM on 02/18/2012
I've known a partner or two who went tantric. Wouldn't have described those moments as "violent" and most certainly it was consensual.

They weren't vegan, though.
09:10 PM on 02/17/2012
PETA sucks and has been giving environmentalists/vegans/vegetarians a bad name since 1980.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
M Zahran Sallay
apple fan, lumia owner...
11:00 PM on 02/18/2012
indeed.

did you see the recent jon stewart video regarding peta's seaworld slavery lawsuit? simultaneously hillarious/painful to watch...
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
pizzmoe
Bio Hazard!
01:34 PM on 02/17/2012
It wasn't hysterically funny but in no way did it even imply any kind of sexual violence or abuse.
10:31 AM on 02/17/2012
Vegetables are food that food eats.
07:49 AM on 02/19/2012
For the sake of your bowels, I hope that's a joke.
08:17 AM on 02/19/2012
Ha...yea, it's a joke. I do like red meat but I eat a lot of plants too. The combination makes for an absolutely heroic....well, you know.
photo
skillfullmeans
Shut up, ignorance!
09:32 AM on 02/17/2012
Well this certainly doesn't help the "feminists have no sense of humor" stereotype.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
SusanElizabeth1949
My micro-bio may be empty but my head isn't.
10:58 AM on 02/19/2012
There is absolutely nothing 'funny' about a woman in a neckbrace due to her boyfriend's actions.
08:59 AM on 02/17/2012
Not terribly funny, but you'd have to be stupid to not realize it's totally NOT about abused women.