Plucking Angora rabbits to use their fur in clothing is like waxing the hair off unwilling humans, says PETA's latest human-shaming ad.
Characteristic of the animal advocacy group's PSAs, it's designed to make your skin crawl, complete with close-ups of grimacing faces, and squelchy sound effects, most of which end up seeming kind of ridiculous. The most disturbing part of the spot, created with agency Lowe & Partners Singapore and production company Great Guns, is the brief edit of a man tearing out the hair from a squealing Angora at a factory in China. The footage is excerpted from PETA's exposé last year, which sparked a scandal in the fashion industry and spurred major brands like H&M to stop producing Angora wool wear.
The spot is effective enough in terms of refreshing awareness about the cruel techniques behind the rabbit fur products, even if the overwrought metaphor isn't as powerful as the uncut reality. As much as PETA may love anthropomorphizing animals, this isn't one of those scenarios where drawing a melodramatic comparison to people is necessary, or even helpful—especially not to illustrate the obvious point that the rabbits are treated worse than crybaby homo sapiens who are getting a voluntary, if perhaps unpleasant, preening procedure.
Still, as shrill as PETA's marketing often manages to be, it hascome a long way from the days when it was just a never-endingpunch line.