Guerilla Market Sells ‘Human-Skin’ Jackets and Bags in Jab at Urban Outfitters

For Immediate Release:
November 29, 2021

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

“Style That Demands a Second Look.” That’s the tagline of Urban Outraged, a new online “store” pretending to sell jackets, boots, skirts, and bags made of the finest leather—that on second look, reveal human faces on the jackets, human teeth on the shoes, and human blood oozing from the bags. It’s all part of a chilling new guerilla marketing campaign by PETA to get Urban Outfitters, Inc., to realize that we’re all sentient beings with emotions, intelligence, and the desire to live—and to persuade the company to stop selling the skin anyone was born in.

The shareable, interactive Urban Outraged shopping experience will be advertised on social media, through “gift cards” that shoppers can send to their friends and family members, and via online ads: “Fashion that dares to ask the question ‘Who are you wearing?’”

“A cow’s skin belongs to her, and she feels fear and pain in a slaughterhouse every bit as much as you or I would,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s Urban Outraged challenges shoppers to see the individual behind every bit of animal skin on store racks and shelves.”

Each item for “sale” by Urban Outraged is named after the individual who was “killed” for it and is “reviewed” by customers. (“I’m not really a boot person, but I’m glad Meg was, because these are the best boots I’ve ever worn.”) Urban Outraged also offers an “Afterlife Collection.” (“We’ll turn your loved one’s skin into a handmade item for you to cherish.”)

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.