Holy Cow! Dairy Farm ‘Playset’ Parody From PETA to Air During Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

For Immediate Release:
November 20, 2023

Contact:
Brittney Williams 202-483-7382

Don’t let the dairy industry toy with your family! That’s the message of a PETA commercial airing during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday and other holiday programs streaming on Peacock throughout the week and into December.

In the satirical spot, which is purportedly an advertisement for a children’s playset called Authentic Toys! Dairy Farm Series, a family gathers under the Christmas tree while the kids explore their new gift, which includes “real cow feces to spread all over the place,” bloody dehorning and milking tools, and even a “farmer’s calf-dragging action to take that baby away”—a reference to how the dairy industry separates a mother cow from her baby shortly after birth so that the milk she produces for her calf can be collected for human consumption instead.

At the end of the ad, the narrator pushes another toy—the slaughterhouse series—that represents the next stop for cows whose bodies no longer produce milk, prompting the mother to yell, “No!”, the father to distract the children with bicycles, and the parents to decide together to throw out their cheese.

“Authentic Toys! Dairy Farm Series might be a PETA creation, but it’s no more fictitious than the misleading toy sets that fool kids into thinking dairy farms are delightful,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “This holiday season, we’re urging parents to keep propaganda out of the playroom and cruelty out of the kitchen by going vegan.”

A recent study from the University of Copenhagen revealed that cows used for dairy suffer even more throughout their lives than those used for meat. In addition to the cruelties highlighted in PETA’s ad, it’s standard practice for dairy workers to forcibly and artificially inseminate cows by inserting an arm into the animals’ rectum and a metal rod to deliver semen into their vagina. PETA’s investigations into dairy facilities have found workers electroshocking cows in the face, hitting them with poles and a cane, and abusing them in other ways.

PETA’s commercial, which can be viewed in full here, will air during numerous festive programs, including Christmas in Rockefeller Center, Christmas at the Opry, A Saturday Night Live Christmas Special, and Christmas at Graceland.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and offers a free vegan starter kit on its website. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.