Why Is The Latest PETA Billboard Stirring Up So Much Controversy?

This wouldn’t be the first time that a chunk of the society highly disagrees with PETA’s ‘Go Vegan’ banter. As much as the practice is a friendlier approach towards the environment and animals, the association has often used questionable ways of promoting it.

Raising Eyebrows

From calling home cooks ‘family butchers’ (with imagery, mind you) to using rather unpleasant graphics to send the message across, the organization has now put a cigar in kids’ hands.

You read that right. The most recent series of PETA billboards that made its debt in Leeds, UK, shows a child smoking a Cuban with the caption “Go Vegan! You Wouldn’t Let Your Child Smoke. Like Smoking, Eating Bacon, Sausages and Other Processed Meats Is Linked to Cancer” sprawled across the banner.

*slow claps*

This latest ad refers to a recent judgment by the World Health Organization that categorizes red meat and processed meat as probable carcinogens and level 1A carcinogens respectively. This means that the two types of meats fall in the same category as that of alcohol, asbestos and cigarettes. Hence, the ad.

Too Harsh?

Despite the study that throws all the above in the same category, the fact remains that smoking is far (‘millions of light-years away’ far) more likely to cause cancer than consuming bacon or any of the mentioned meats.

PETA’s message that just like giving up cigarette is the right health choice, so is going vegan, is pretty clear and simple. But the representation could be rethought of. What do you think?