Chickens Have a Bone to Pick in New TV Campaign

Buffalo Wings Capital Gets First Look

For Immediate Release:
August 31, 2022

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

When people hear the word “chicken,” do most of them imagine food—maybe even Buffalo wings—or a smart and sensitive individual who values her own life? The right answer, from a bird’s-eye view, is what some sassy hens will bring into focus as part of a new PETA ad campaign launching today, in time for National Chicken Month (September).

The new 30-second spot homes in on focus group participants who almost drool when they hear the word “chicken,” but when the lights come up, the embarrassed group sees that they’re being studied by a flock of chickens standing behind a one-way mirror. Concluding with “Chickens need their wings. You don’t,” the spot will debut ahead of the National Buffalo Chicken Wing Festival in Buffalo, New York—where Buffalo wings got their name.

“Americans eat more than 1 million chickens an hour, and although we don’t often reflect on it, it’s a fact that every chicken feels pain and fear and wants to live as much as you or I do,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA’s new campaign urges everyone to see chickens for who they are and give tasty vegan wings a try instead.”

Chickens are inquisitive animals who can complete complex mental tasks, learn from watching each other, demonstrate self-control, and worry about the future. In the meat industry, they’re bred to grow so large that their legs often become crippled under their own weight, and at slaughterhouses, their throats are slit, often while they’re still conscious. PETA has lots of videos that would make chicken consumers lose their lunch.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—offers a free vegan starter kit and a list of meat-free wings available at grocery stores. Visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.