PETA’s Newest Pokémon Parody Takes On McDonald’s

‘Pokémon: Red, White, & Blue—An Unofficial PETA Parody’ Lets Players Battle Fast-Food Chain’s Attempts to Lure in Kids With Pokémon Toys

For Immediate Release:
October 10, 2013

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 323-210-2275

Los Angeles – Pokémon X and Y is headed to store shelves—and hot on its heels is the long-awaited follow-up to PETA’s 2012 parody, Pokémon: Black & Blue. PETA’s new game, Pokémon: Red, White, & Blue—An Unofficial PETA Parody, makes the point that by using beloved icons such as Pokémon as Happy Meal toys, McDonald’s hoodwinks kids into believing that Happy Meals are made up of cuteness and fun, when nothing could be further from the truth. PETA’s game contends that if Pokémon came to our world, they would likely be horrified to discover how we treat animals—and we’d probably exploit them in the same ways. 

The game centers around a group of Pokémon out to free their brethren from the clutches of nefarious abusers that Pokémon would likely encounter in our world—including sadistic slaughterhouse workers set on killing them for food, meme-spouting McDonald’s customers, and a frightening “boss”: a creepy Ronald McDonald, who reveals himself to be the profit-hungry McDonald’s CEO responsible for using the Pokémon’s likenesses to sell the corpses of chickens and cows.

“Our parody game is a fun way to tackle a serious issue—that it’s wrong for Nintendo to allow McDonald’s to lure kids in using its beloved, cute icons, when the reality that Pokémon have been used to mask would horrify them,” says PETA Director of Marketing Innovations Joel Bartlett. “PETA’s game offers an empathetic way to look at animals that we hope will inspire players to choose kindness and go vegan—after all, even humans can evolve.”

Challenging the cute, sanitized version of the lives of farmed animals pushed by McDonald’s Pokémon Happy Meals, PETA’s game reveals the reality, showing kids what really happens to chickens killed for the restaurant chain. At the slaughterhouses of McDonald’s chicken suppliers, for example, chickens are hung upside down and have their throats cut while they’re still conscious, and many are immersed in tanks of scalding-hot water while they’re still alive and able to feel pain. After their bodies are turned into McNuggets, they’re sold to kids with the promise of a cute toy—such as a plastic Pokémon figure.

To play Pokémon: Red, White, & Blue—An Unofficial PETA Parody, click here. For more information, please visit PETA.org.