Touchdowns and Fumbles: PETA Scores 2023’s Super Bowl Ads
PETA has been educating ad agencies and other companies about the dismal living conditions and abusive training methods that wild animals forced in front of the camera endure. Now we’ve broken down the commercials during Super Bowl LVII according to whether they were good, bad, or ugly from animals’ perspective.
The Good
Jeep’s realistic animation, courtesy of ad agency Highdive and production company The Mill, featured dancing elephants, head-bobbing owls, a winking sloth, and other wild animals free to “boogie woogie” in their natural habitats.
Avocados From Mexico showed a charming computer-generated prairie dog who shared the screen with Anna Faris.
Finally, Busch Light’s ad featured a humorous nod to animal rescue from The Martin Agency, featuring a realistic visual effects wolf and owl. We hope the goodwill to animals extends beyond the big game for Anheuser-Busch, which mutilates Clydesdale horses’ tails for its Budweiser brand. We’re still asking that you boycott the beer mogul’s brands and that you take a moment to urge the company to stop harming horses immediately.
The Bad
Jon Hamm, Brie Larson, and Pete Davidson shilled for the cruel—as well as environmentally devastating and unhealthy—meat, egg, and dairy industries, which intensively farm animals in appalling filth.
Imagine letting companies that do this use your image to sell their evil.
The Ugly
Joel McHale exploited a real cougar, who should never be in close contact with humans, to cruelly promote his out-of-touch TV show, Animal Control. Don’t watch it, or any show that exploits animals for profit.
“While forward-thinking advertisers relied on modern approaches like computer-generated imagery or human talent for their coveted Super Bowl slot, Joel McFail shamelessly cornered the market on animal mistreatment. Despite a few fouls, the advertising industry largely embraced innovative and animal-free creations for one of its biggest nights of the year, and in PETA’s playbook, that’s a win for everyone.”
—Tracy Reiman, PETA Executive Vice President
Also receiving kudos from PETA is Amazon’s ad encouraging families to adopt lovable mutts to help offset the loneliness and anxiety that “pandemic pups” are facing now that their guardians are returning to work and school. Not so kind to canines was television host Greg Gutfeld’s use of a French bulldog—a breathing-impaired breed deliberately bred to have airways so restricted that the dogs suffer from a host of painful health conditions.
PETA’s undercover investigations and law-enforcement agencies’ probes into animal suppliers for the film and TV industries have documented that animals are whipped and kept in deplorable conditions. The anguish for most of them begins shortly after birth, when they’re typically separated from their mothers and denied the maternal care that they need for normal development. As wild animals mature and become useless to trainers, many are discarded at seedy roadside zoos or other substandard facilities, where they may suffer for years without proper food or veterinary care.
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