No Great Apes and Plenty of CGI Mark a New, Kinder Super Bowl
For
Immediate Release:
February
4, 2013
Contact:
David
Perle 202-483-7382
New Orleans -- With a power outage, a Destiny's Child reunion, and a questionable last-minute call, this year's Super Bowl was full of surprises. But no surprise to PETA was the kinder direction that this year's crop of ads took: This was the first Super Bowl since all of the top 10 advertising agencies in the U.S. agreed never to use great apes in their ads—and sure enough, not one of this year's ads featured a chimpanzee or other great apes, and many used computer-generated imagery (CGI) to portray other animals.
"As this year's Super Bowl illustrated, top advertisers nowadays are exercising kindness and creativity instead of relying on captive great apes for cheap laughs," says PETA primatologist Julia Gallucci.
As shown in PETA's hard-hitting video exposé, narrated by Anjelica Huston, great apes are torn away from their mothers shortly after birth and frequently beaten during training to perform in ads. Other animals suffer, too: During an undercover investigation of a facility that trains exotic cats, for example, PETA documented that big cats were dragged by chains around their necks, hit in the face, smashed over the head with ax handles, and deprived of food. When they're not being forced to perform, exotic animals used in ads are kept in extreme confinement and deprived of everything that is natural and important to them, including companionship and a spacious, enriching environment.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
