Everyone
knows that modern media are very
competitive. Nowadays, people
at every stage of their lives are
literally bombarded with a variety of visual images; from
art and advertising to movies and television. Therefore,
because we live in a visually-saturated culture, modern
media have a difficult task to do to draw people’s attention.
Since depicting nudity, especially undressed women, has always been
‘eye-catching’ for human beings, thus
it should not be a surprise that over
the last few years controversy and nudity have become necessary to
get people’s attention.
One
of the best known animal rights organization
People for Ethical Treatment of Animals
—in short PETA— has always rolled out very creative and visible,
yet, highly controversial campaigns to struggle towards animals’
rights. PETA promotes not only vegetarianism but also raises
awareness of cruelty to animals.
Most
famously PETA is known for their risqué ads featuring nude or
scantily clad women and now also men. The idea behind PETA’s
campaign is usually to protest how humans use animals in inhuman ways
for eating, clothing or even for their own entertainment.
As
we all known modern media have become very competing, thus showing
the female’s and male’s ”objectification” and the nudity is,
to some extent, essential and necessary to attract people’s
attention
In
advertisements both women and men have become the objects to be
looked at, however, the way in which we look at them are diverse. For
instance, when men do appear in the nude in PETA campaigns, their ads
tend to be ironic, funny, humorous, and full of personality.
 |
| PETA, “Wear Your Own Fur” 2011
On
the other hand, women in PETA’s campaigns are mainly seen as sexual
objects and “animals”. For instance, Pamela Anderson is not only
presented as human flesh in the PETA’s campaign, but also as a
sensual object, to attract more men’s “gazes”.
|
 |
| PETA, “All Animals Have The Same Parts” 2010 |
Although
many people believe that PETA’s campaigns are controversial and
“exploit” and “objectify” male and female human bodies, hey
do it for an important issue—to bring attention to the plight of
animals.
PETA's
mission is to get the animal rights message to as many people as
possible. Unfortunately, these days this is a hard task, thus PETA
decided that the best way to attract people is to show “sex”,
“nudity” and human objectification in its campaigns.
Indeed,
I believe that PETA does some very good work bringing issues
concerning animal rights to the media, and by extension the public’s
attention.
Therefore,
I believe that whether you like their methods or not, PETA does get
noticed and that is the most important thing.
Questions:
- What do you think of PETA organisation and its campaigns? Do you think that PETA's campaigns have any impact on society?
- PETA often involve celebrities in their Animal Rights Causes. Do you believe that it is a good practice to involve famous people in their campaigns? Can you think of any advantages/ disadvantages of celebrity activism?
- Do you agree with the statement that in the modern media controversy, sex and nudity have become necessary to draw people's attention?
