Hey, Diners, ‘I’m ME, Not MEAT!’ and ‘I Am You, Only Different’ Proclaims PETA Ad Blitz

Placed Outside Fast-Food Eateries, PETA’s Provocative Bus Shelter Ads Plead With Diners to See Animals as Individuals and Go Vegan

For Immediate Release:
July 31, 2017

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

PETA is serving up some food for thought to hungry diners, courtesy of bus shelter ads promoting the idea that animals are much more than the sum of their parts. The ads have gone up outside fast-food restaurants in Hudson, Middlesex, Essex, and Bergen counties.

The ads—which are posted outside Blimpie, John’s Fried Chicken, and Wendy’s restaurants, among other locations—come in three designs. One shows a chicken’s face next to the words “I’m ME, Not MEAT. See the Individual. Go Vegan.” The other designs feature a pig or a crying cow next to the words “I Am You, Only Different. Go Vegan.”

“Just like humans, chickens, pigs, and cows are made of flesh and blood, feel pain and fear, have unique personalities, and value their own lives,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s new ad campaign encourages everyone to empathize with animals by choosing vegan meals.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that in today’s industrialized meat industry, chickens killed for their flesh are crammed by the tens of thousands into filthy sheds and bred to grow such unnaturally large upper bodies that their legs often become crippled under the weight. Pigs’ tails are chopped off, their teeth are cut with pliers, and males are castrated—all without any painkillers. At slaughterhouses, workers shoot cows in the head with a captive-bolt gun, hang them up by one leg, cut their throats, and skin them—often while they’re still conscious.

The ads can be seen in the following locations:

• Outside John’s Fried Chicken at 6719 Bergenline Ave. in Guttenberg
• In front of Wendy’s at 2617 County Rd. 516 in Old Bridge
• Outside Wendy’s at 147 Bloomfield Ave. in Bloomfield
• Across from Jersey Mike’s Subs at 235 Prospect Ave. in West Orange
• Outside Blimpie at 100 Broadway in Elmwood Park

The group plans to target New York City commuters with similar ads outside fast-food restaurants on Long Island and in Westchester County, New York. PETA initially tried to post the crying calf ad in Westchester, but the Westchester County Department of Transportation rejected the image, later accepting the version showing a herd of cows.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.