Letters to the Editor
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I'd hit it
But I'd still have bacon with breakfast.
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Video
For reporters too lazy to type.
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I already feel sexier...
And that's sayin' something for an old wrinkled guy in his 70s.
[Veg really IS energizing. I admit to being somewhat surprised by that...but there were years of 'meat & potatoes strength and vitality' propaganda to get over]
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I wonder if everyone drove an electric car
The increased amount of electrical generation we'd have to supply would require us to build more oil, coal and nuclear plants? I wonder how many animals died testing the pool chemicals, film stock, makeup and such used in that ad? If I were cynical which of course I'm not, I'd say quite a bit.
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No Doubt . . .
the right veggie diet can increase energy. This is not because of the vegetables themselves but because vegetarians eat fewer calories overall and less processed sugar. Most Americans eat far too much food, and I think lower cal diets with higher fiber will make people feel better.
The point is not to eliminate all meat. Just to eat a lot less of it. You're just not going to convince me that the Greek maxim of moderation in all things is wrong.
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Surprise
Animal rights activists can't rely on actual data to support their cause. Like cigarette companies, they turn straight to sex appeal.
I'm a vegetarian (not because I think eating meat is wrong, but because I do recognize that the current meat industry contributes significantly to global warming), and I can't imagine that if I weren't, an ad like that would make me want to leave the meat behind.
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How is it possible
that a woman can be so hot?
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Do remember
While I suppose it's fair that you "have nothing but respect for how effectively PETA ensures that its propaganda message is distributed" given their exposure, you might also have added that it's a quasi-cult headed by a misanthropic lunatic. PETA lost whatever respect I had for it when they decided to compare industrial farming to the Holocaust. And this isn't to come down against vegetarians--PETA gives vegetarians a bad name.
You did get one thing quite right: by polarizing the issue, they are ensuring they will never have real traction. A far better way to curb the environmental affects of meat consumption? A campaign encouraging, say, a 50% reduction in meat eating; go one day on meat, one day off, maybe. Lectures about veganism aren't going to register with the vast majority of meat consumers.
As for the celebrity nudes, well, nice to have a see. But given the thrall that that other quasi-cult, Scientology, exerts over some A-listers, the position of celebrities on social issues doesn't strike me as of any higher calibre intelligence than that of the person in the street.
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meeeaaaatttt
Hmmm, for all that energy, she moves and talks kinda slow.
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The one document you should read on livestock and global warming
PETA and/or everyone else who is trumpeting this link between meat-eating and global warming has been pointing to a UN report called "Livestock's Long Shadow," which was published last year by the Food and Agriculture Organization, a UN component. This very lengthy report is available in pdf form on the FAO website and numerous other websites, and I strongly encourage you to read it for yourself--if not the entire 408 pages, at least the summary chapter, which I believe is Chapter 7. Here is just one way to get a copy of it:
http://www.fao.org/ag/magazine/0612sp1.htm
Yes, it does show a strong link between the raising of livestock and greenhouse gas emissions, particularly with regard to the raising of beef cattle in parts of Brazil where rainforest is being destroyed to increase grazing areas. But among the other factoids I took away from this report were the following:
--Milk and eggs (which vegans are against the consumption of) provide a vital source of protein for growing children in the developing world who otherwise have a vegetarian diet.
--Livestock in the developing world provides a vital emergency food source (for years when crop production is low), not to mention a means of subsistence and a means to make a living for millions of people.
--Some livestock, such as goats, are not really depriving us of land space where we might otherwise grow fruits and vegetables, because they are grazing on rocky hillsides and eating forms of vegetable protein that we can't digest anyway.
--Poultry can actually be beneficial to the environment because they eat insects and grubs that would otherwise be eating our vegetables, and their manure is a great organic fertilizer.
--Cows can be bred and raised to be a lot more efficient than they currently are. The developed world is generally ahead of the developing world in terms of the efficiency of their cows, and the US dairy industry is generally ahead of the US beef industry.
--Cows will also produce less methane if given antibiotics, but there are obviously some tradeoffs to this strategy.
What I take from this report is that we in the developed world should be eating less beef, supporting sustainable third-world development, and asking a lot of hard questions of both the livestock industry *and* groups like PETA.
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Am I missing something?
Caveat: I'm at work and I watched the video without audio.
Is it me, or could this have just as easily been any other advertisement using sex to push some product on us? It might just have easily said "Smoke Unfiltered Cigarettes" at the end of the video.
As beautiful as the video is, I still can't feeling that it completely overshadows ANY kind of message that you would attach to it.
I don't really see this as a successful marketing campaign, mainly because there isn't a direct social correlation between the advertising method used and the lifestyle (or product) that is being pitched/sold.
We DO have unfortunate situations for many products that use sex appeal in advertising--there are way too many clothing and fashion products that rely on the notion that "wearing this product will get you laid" and way too many people in our society that have bought into the idea and are complicit in making this fiction a reality.
Conversely, I've never met anyone who said "Oh, wow--you don't eat meat? That's soo hot--will you go to bed with me?"
I just don't think a lifestyle choice, like becoming a vegetarian, or any other lifestyle choice for that matter, has a direct enough connection to sex appeal, outside of more educated and intellectual circles. It's a steamy video for sure, but I've already forgotten what it's point was.