PETA Threatens PR Agencies
Yesterday I got an email from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) urging me not to represent Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (no relation), and I gotta tell you I’m impressed with the approach. Now I don’t like being threatened any more than the next guy, and I do not always agree with PETA’s tactics. However, I do have to applaud them for their unique strategy in targeting PR and marketing firms.
PETA’s basic premise is this: if you represent Ringling, you risk your own reputation. “No amount of PR can make beating baby elephants sound good”. Yep, they’ve got a point on that one.
In the email, they quote PETA Executive VP Tracy Reiman. “Ringling Bros. is a public relations nightmare waiting to happen. There’s not a PR team in the world that is slick enough to sell the beating of baby elephants, the whipping of tigers, and the use of chains, bullhooks, and electric prods on animals – all for the sake of a few cheap tricks.”
This effort coincides with a full page ad in PR News with the same theme, geared at letting PR people know what they might be getting into when they sign a contract with Ringling. I also got a phone call from a PETA representative to follow up on the email.
As a marketer, I don’t recall ever being targeted with this kind of effort. I think many people are affected by PETA’s tactics, and not always in supportive ways. Some of my friends are very turned off my their scare tactics and strong-armed veiled threats. Others are sympathetic to the cause, and to the animals PETA seeks to protect. I don’t know anyone that is FOR animal cruelty, but when does PETA and other similar organizations take it too far?
If you want to know more, here’s PETA’s website devoted to the Ringling issue. A word of warning – it’s not for the squeamish or faint of heart. But then again, I don’t know anyone in the marketing business I would define as faint of heart.
What do you think about this approach of preemptively targeting marketing firms?
*** Note: BG would not be interested in representing Ringling Bros. – animal cruelty or not. Our business is enough of a circus as it is, and we don’t need clowns and tightrope walkers to remind us.
Very interesting angle for PETA to take; I’m wondering how effective it’ll be. I’ve got mixed feelings about it, too…
What I like is the ‘outside-the-box’ tactical approach of going to the source of the media voice to get a message across. It’s an interesting audience to start a conversation with on the matter.
What bothers me about this approach isn’t the “PETA-esque” scare tactic (don’t like that either but have gotten used to it from them). What puts me off about it is the assumptive voice they use. In my opinion, PETA’s voice never fails to speak down to its audience. And speaking down to anybody, much less PR professionals, is hardly an effective way to get your message heard.
Marketing professionals are in-tune with the fact that certain industries and clients carry excess baggage, and surely take that into consideration when considering adding a new client.
I think a more informative/less assumptive execution would be much more effective. [read: Sure, become a resource and educate me on the facts. But considering I own an agency with a PR practice... I think I can take care of my reputation
.]
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Very clever on PETAs behalf. I applaud their efforts, and although I don’t always agree with their antics, they usually do have a good point somewhere between the madness. I mean, really, who could support the beating of baby elephants? I think this is an ok strategy as long as PETA isn’t truly endangering the agencies that they are targeting But, who knows how far PETA will take these efforts.. I wonder who is handling Ringling Bros. marketing now and how PETA is approaching them.
Working with Ringling Bros sounds like a PR persons dream job actually. The good PR pros relish the opportunity to take on a brand with a need to improve their image. Ringling is an American icon, and if I did some digging I am sure I would learn they have taken measures to treat their animals with more respect (especially under the pressure of PETA). Please, look at all of the fashion and sneaker houses who spent the 1980s abusing children and adults in sweat shops. Now they are billion dollar brands, sweat shops are decades behind them, and they are praised for “giving back” to the community through million dollar Foundations. Ringling’s image can be turned around, and I’d be proud to be part of the team that makes it happen.
I spent close to 6 years as a publicist for RBBB and I can say, unequivocally, I saw the most caring, loving treatment of those animals I could have imagined. Not saying there haven’t been incidents. I’m sure there have. Just as some restaurants hire illegal aliens. Should PR firms not work for restaurants?
But by and large the RBBB handlers care deeply about the well being of the animals, and treat them as such. PETA’s tactics, which I was confronted with at every stop, are typical – they send video to the media that isn’t even of RBBB, they protest and hand out grotesque literature to families (including young children) and they try to bully people into believing their hype. RBBB was a great client.