Siri, Say What?! PETA ‘Truth Mode’ Battles Mealtime Mistruths

For Immediate Release:
December 19, 2022

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

“Smart devices may be smart, but they’re not always honest. Introducing, ‘Truth Mode,’” begins a brand-new 60-second video from PETA that shows smart-device users as they receive alarming—but truthful—answers in response to questions like “Hey Siri, can you help me find an easy chicken finger recipe?” and “Hey Siri, how do you make ice cream?” Or, as PETA puts it in the video, “Giving you 100% of the information, whether you like it or not.”

With interest in smart speakers on the rise, PETA’s tongue-in-cheek campaign demonstrates how a “Truth Mode” software update could help Siri kick industry-backed euphemisms to the curb by offering “incredibly precise results on every query,” such as referring to chicken meat as “carcasses” and eggs as “reproductive goop.” As the video shows, “Truth Mode” could give users an edge on their homework and crossword puzzles but, most importantly, on how they treat animals: “Be Smart. Be Vegan.”

“Smart-speaker users expect accurate responses, and PETA’s new campaign shows what would happen if Siri gave frank answers about the horrors that animals endure in the meat, egg, and dairy industries,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s ‘Truth Mode’ may be shocking, but it could be the shock people need to go vegan.”

Here are some of the facts that a real-life “Truth Mode” would tell users.

• Egg farms obtain hens from hatcheries that kill all male chicks at birth—typically by grinding them up alive—because they can’t lay eggs.
• The majority of retail meat contains feces, and the federal government only has a policy against visible feces on the production line.
• Cows used for dairy are artificially inseminated (i.e., raped): Workers insert an arm into the cow’s rectum and a metal rod to deliver semen into her vagina. Shortly after she gives birth, they steal her beloved calf, and then they take the milk meant for her baby.

With or without “Truth Mode,” users can use their smart devices to visit PETA’s website and request a free vegan starter kit. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.