P.E.T.A. Pros at Drawing Attention . . . But Does Anyone Care?

Love 'em or hate 'em, you've got to give the folks at P.E.T.A. credit for drumming up boatloads of publicity.


Their latest coup was in getting NBC to reject a racy ad advocating vegetarianism -- an ad almost certainly never intended to see the light of day. In fact, it's a ploy P.E.T.A. has used successfully in the past, yet the media keeps taking the bait.


A few weeks earlier, P.E.T.A. earned another round of free airtime by calling for psychological testing on Michael Vick -- after first duping the disgraced QB into considering appearing in a P.E.T.A. PSA to restore his tarnished image.

While you've got to tip your hat to them, you've also got to wonder whether the PR avalanche is doing anything to change public attitudes and behavior. Isn't that supposed to be the ultimate goal of any PR effort?

A few years ago, a friend of mine told me about a PR stunt she participated in as a member of P.E.T.A. They dressed someone in a chicken suit and, armed with a sign decrying the inhumanity of the chicken processing industry, headed to Atlanta's Georgia World Congress Center for the annual meeting of the Georgia Poultry Federation. But the chicken farmers didn't get it . . . they thought the costumed character was their own mascot, and mugged for photos to the dismay of the P.E.T.A. posse.

Like the boy who cried wolf, at some point the media and the public will tire of P.E.T.A.'s self-indulgent PR efforts. Until then, though, it's sort of fun imaging what outlandish stunt they may try to pull off next.