A Look at Peta's Public Relations Programs

Approximately thirty years ago, PETA forever changed the way that the people of the United States would look at animal welfare, and the rights of animals. Although this organization is notorious for its guerilla public relations techniques, it remains the strongest voice for animal rights in the entire world. Their use of public relations has been described in many different ways: intense, over the top, ridiculous, hilarious, militant, and genius. For this reason, one must delve deeper into PETA and its use of public relations. One can do this by identifying PETA and its history, what PETA is currently doing in regards to public relations, looking at the strengths and weaknesses of PETA’s numerous public relations campaigns, further explaining the reasoning behind PETA’s use of radical PR tactics, what comparable animal rights organizations are doing, and finally looking at how PETA can improve its public relations programs. The first topic of discussion is PETA itself. The acronym “PETA” stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA is an international nonprofit charitable organization. Based in Norfolk, Virginia, the organization has affiliates all across the globe, including the United Kingdom, Germany, India, the Netherlands, and the Asia-Pacific region. The organization was founded in 1980, and has remained dedicated to establishing and defending the rights of all animals (PETA, 2009.) One of PETA’s mantras, as found on their primary website, is “Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.” Throughout its thirty years of existence, PETA has made some historic steps for animal rights. Their first major work was done in 1981, and was entitled “The Silver Spring Monkeys” case. When the case was successfully completed, PETA celebrated the United State’s first criminal conviction of an animal experimenter due to the cruelty of animals (PETA, 2009.) Other campaigns created by PETA have led to numerous reforms for