PETA knows how to raise eyebrows. The animal rights group's memorable campaigns have entailed everything from celebrities posing nude for its anti-fur campaign to scantily clad women having an erotic moment with their vegetables to support veganism.
Now, PETA has pulled out all of the stops with a XXX porn site for its next clever marketing endeavor, reports The Register.
PETA confirmed the XXX site in a phone interview with The Huffington Post.
"We live in a 24 hour news cycle world and we learn the racy things we do are sometimes the most effective way that we can reach particular individuals," said PETA spokeswoman Lindsay Rajt.
Instead of focusing on anti-fur, the porn site will raise awareness of veganism, said Rajt. "We really want to grab people's attention, get them talking and to question the status quo and ultimately take action, because the best way we can help the greatest number of animals is simply by not eating them."
An increasing number of groups are suggesting that eating less meat is better for your health, and certainly better for animals. PETA's website describes life for animals on factory farms:
Chickens have their sensitive beaks seared off with a hot blade, and male cattle and pigs are castrated without any painkillers. Farmed chickens, turkeys, and pigs spend their brief lives in dark and crowded warehouses, many of them so cramped that they can't even turn around or spread a single wing. They are mired in their own waste, and the stench of ammonia fills the air.
So how pornographic will PETA go? According to Rajt, it will have enough adult content to qualify for the XXX domain site but also some other graphic images of animals that viewers may not expect to see.
Australia's Herald Sun reports that "PETA's sexy side displayed in galleries and videos will quickly give way to the sinister world of animal mistreatment uncovered by the groups hidden camera investigations in a very different kind of graphic content."
With the finer details still to be finalized, PETA did confirm that regular people, not just celebrities, will also be featured in the project.
"There will be a lot of girl and boy next door content, but we haven't ruled out celebrities on the site as well," said Rajt. "People who are extraordinarily dedicated to helping animals and who are willing to do whatever it takes to draw attention to the suffering they endure."
The first environmental porn movement was founded back in 2005, reports The Independent. Set up by a Swedish and Norwegian couple, the duo offered a subscription video service with money being raised for the environment.
PETA's jump into adult content comes on the heels of Brooke Hogan posing nude for a photo exhibit to benefit PETA, although there was no direct affiliation.
PETA has done ad campaigns with adult film stars Sasha Grey, Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson. In 2008, the organization's YouTube account was temporarily shut down after posting racy videos of celebrities and others posing nude.
Even though PETA's intention is to improve animal welfare, some argue that the move to protect animals comes at the cost of exploiting women. A Facebook group, Real Women Against PETA, was created after the organization posted a billboard of an obese woman that read, "Save the Whales, Lose the Blubber, Go Vegetarian." A headline for The Sydney Morning Herald once read, "Pro-vegetarian group treats women like meat."
But Rajt explains the motives behind these tactics are cleverly thought out and ensure they get results: "We try to use absolutely every outlet to stick up for animals ... We are careful about what we do and wouldn't use nudity or some of our flashier tactics if we didn't know they worked. We also track the effectiveness of our actions very closely and see if we get visitors checking out other features on our site."
