Campaign group is no stranger to controversial stunts
Complaints over a campaign group’s advert that likened eating fish to eating cats have been rejected by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), the controversial animal rights organisation, ran the adverts in April in England's fishing capital of Grimsby with the picture of a fishmonger handling a fish and urging the public to “sea things in a different light.”
However when viewed from a side perspective, the posters changed to show a dead cat instead of the fish.
Some 10 complaints were received with three of them claiming the adverts were in public places where children could be upset by them.
Peta’s defence was that it was challenging the notion that some animals were more important than others.
Ironically the organisation said the complaints themselves made this point as they only mentioned the dead cat as being upsetting while the dead fish wasn’t mentioned.
ASA accepted Peta’s explanation in a ruling published this week.
The watchdog said: “The ASA acknowledged that some viewers would find the ad unsettling or distasteful.
“However, we considered that viewers would understand that the ad was for an animal justice charity, promoting the vegan diet, and that it aimed to challenge societal norms regarding the moral significance of meat consumption.
“We considered that the cat’s depiction was neither gruesome, nor shocking, and was unlikely to be considered particularly realistic by most viewers. On that basis, we considered that viewers, including children, were likely to regard the image as relatively mild.
“For that reason, we concluded that the ad was not excessively distressing, or likely to cause serious or widespread offence, and had not been irresponsibly targeted.”
Peta said on its website: “Our anti-speciesism billboard caused such a stir in Grimsby that ASA received several complaints calling the advert ‘excessively distressing’”.
But today, after investigating the claims, the ASA ruling cleared Peta’s “Sea Things in a Different Light” ad. The advert’s message is irrefutable: when it comes to suffering, there is no difference between a fish, a cat, or any other animal.
As a result, we’re planning to roll the ad out nationwide as part of our efforts to challenge speciesist thinking. We hope it will encourage everyone to leave all animals – whether feathered or finned, with four legs, two legs, or no limbs at all – off their plates.”
