‘Wear Something Vegan’ Holiday Shopping Ad Blitz Hits D.C.

PETA Ads Urge Shoppers to Steer Clear of Cruelly Obtained Leather, Down, Fur, and Wool Items and Shop Vegan

For Immediate Release:
December 12, 2018

Contact:
Audrey Shircliff 202-483-7382

Smack-dab in the middle of the holiday shopping season, PETA has placed ads near several D.C. department stores showing different animals alongside the message “Wear Something Vegan” to urge consumers not to buy items made of fur, leather, wool, or down. Descriptions of the ads, which will remain in place for four weeks, are below:

• A group of cows alongside the words “We’re Individuals. We’re Not Shoes or Belts. Wear Something Vegan.”
• A mother fox and her baby alongside the words “We’re Individuals. We’re Not Coats or Trim. Wear Something Vegan.”
• A sheep alongside the words “We’re Individuals. We’re Not Sweaters. Wear Something Vegan.”
• Two geese alongside the words “We’re Individuals. We’re Not Down Jackets. Wear Something Vegan.”

The ads are located at bus shelters near the Mazza Gallerie—which is home to stores such as Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue—and down the street from Bloomingdale’s (which sell Canada Goose fur-and-down jackets), H&M (which sells items made from leather), and Eileen Fisher (which sells items made from wool). 

“Just like us, animals are made of flesh and blood, feel pain and fear, and value their lives,” says PETA Assistant Manager of Clothing Campaigns Christina Sewell. “PETA’s ads will encourage shoppers to leave items that stripped animals of their lives on the rack and opt for chic and humane vegan clothing instead.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part that “animals are not ours to wear”—notes that the millions of cows whose skin is turned into leather each year endure dehorning and castration, often without painkillers. Most animals used for fur spend their entire lives confined to cramped, filthy wire cages before being electrocuted, gassed, or poisoned. PETA video exposés of the wool industry have revealed that sheep are beaten, stomped on, and mutilated, while a PETA exposé of the down industry in China documented that workers often pluck the feathers out of sensitive geese and ducks several times a year before leaving them to die. Dead birds were found decaying in crates and ponds or tossed outside like trash.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.