Yesterday PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) launched their new viral campaign to encourage people to “go vegan”. Unfortunately for them, what they apparently intended as a tongue-in-cheek ad has sparked outrage and concern by painting a sad picture of domestic abuse and violence.

The ad opens with a young woman wearing a neck-brace walking down the street with groceries under her arm. She looks glum, to put it lightly, as the narration begins.

This is Jessica. She suffers from BWVAKTBOOM, ‘Boyfriend Went Vegan and Knocked the Bottom Out of Me,’ a painful condition that occurs when boyfriends go vegan and can suddenly bring it like a tantric porn star.

When she arrives home she throws a bunch of veggies at her boyfriend which viewers are supposed to understand to mean that she wants more sex because of the effect going vegan had on their sex life.

She had vigorous sex, so she looks dishevelled. But the bottom line is, she’s coming back from the grocery store with an armful of vegetables because she enjoyed it so much,” said  Linsday Rajt, PETA’s associate director of campaigns and outreach, “It’s meant to be humorous.

The problem here is that it’s meant to be humourous. If viewers have to look so hard to find the humour then there’s a problem, and in this case it seems PETA was a little too clever for their own good. The video soon started making its rounds on the internet and the comments poured in.

“I think it’s sad that you equate good sex with painful, violent sex, I guess you’re trying to be sarcastic,” wrote James Jewell, in the comments section of the organization’s website.

“Cannot find the humour in this at all!” wrote another viewer, Mum LaCroix. “I worked with domestic violence for 4 years . . . this ad is not amusing.”

“PETA . . . stopping abuse of animals … but promoting it for women.”

According to Michael Learmonth, digital editor at Advertising Age, PETA was going for “shock value” with the ad. “But I don’t think portraying women as beat up physically is a good idea, even in jest,” he said to Yahoo News. “These ads aren’t made for TV, so the strategy here is that they will cause controversy, trigger coverage and go viral.”

Whether you like it not, it’s accomplishing what it was made to; go viral. By posting this story here I’ve just added further fuel to the fire and regardless of what comes of the ad, PETA will have the spotlight for at least a little while. So, what do you think, tasty or tasteless?

[Source: Daily News]