Replacing beef with beefcake...brilliant or just beautiful?

I love these PETA print ads (and these actresses) and today the organization launches its newest campaign featuring Alicia Silverstone baring all in efforts to get you to stop eating meat.

No, you don't get to have sex with Alicia (sorry folks) but you do, according to her, "feel better, look better and your skin glows." So it's a play on vanity. I mean, who doesn't want their skin to glow?

Here's the kicker: the campaign airs in steak-loving Houston of all places.

(Good luck, PETA, Houston's likely hit their "guilt quota" with all our gripes on oil.)

The spot is below or just go here.

QUESTION: Does baring it all encourage, persuade or nudge you to say no to the burgers? In addition to beautiful women, are these ads brilliant...meaning, do they achieve their objective?

Curious am I.

As for me? I do eat meat, I do not wear fur (but do have leather handbags) and I don't take NYC horse-drawn carriage rides (those horses look so very sad). But again, I do eat meat (fish, too) and will continue to do so until more non-meat food tastes good and stops trying to emulate meat food (Why make bacon with soy? Or veggie burgers? Stop trying to replace the old, it only makes us miss the old. Try innovating all new--that tastes really good and is really easy to make.)

That said, I do love salads. But I'm not sure if my skin glows. Sigh.

Here's the Alicia spot (RSS readers go here)--btw, nice touch on adding a free veggie starter kit. But the challenge isn't getting people to start a vegan lifestyle, it's making meat-free stick. I do predict it will help Alicia's career, but that's not PETA's objective. Oh, and thanks to PETA for making my blog extra sexy today ;-).

Alicia Silverstone’s Sexy Veggie PSA
Order a FREE vegetarian starter kit at GoVeg.com

Comments

[Tim Siedell]

If going vegetarian makes you feel energetic, the print ad with Alicia Silverstone certainly doesn't get that message across...

http://tinyurl.com/2srexn

[CK]

@Tim: Ha! Yeah, I think (in the print ad) they were going for sexy vs. sleepy. Love what PETA is trying to do. But not how they're doing it. My solution? Make vegan food taste better (innovate) and make it easy to make (streamline).

Wonder why PETA doesn't have a full-out Wiki of vegans uploading their favorite recipes...or do they? Don't think they do but they should work the community angle there.

[Stephen Denny]

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling more energetic already.

But I'm not going veggie. Final answer. The kind of person who would be convinced not to eat meat by a commercial is the kind of person who doesn't deserve red meat in the first place. But I'm old school that way.

No, this commercial (while aesthetically breathtaking in its own way) will flop if they think we're changing a millenia of eating habits.

The only way US consumers would reduce their red meat consumption would be because of economics, at which point very viable and great tasting alternatives would need to appear. Marketing isn't just about nice pictures and great words. No matter how nice the pictures are.

[Toad]

Not sure the purpose of these ads. I mean clearly no one is going to look at them, think "damn, if I stop eating meat, maybe I'll have a shot at/look more like Alicia Silverstone."

I suspect the point is to get teens to think being a vegetarian is cool.

But I also suspect that the teens they convince will change their minds in about 6 months when they move on to the next trend.

Beats throwing paint on Anna Wintour, though.

[Mark Goren]

This can't be serious. Ridiculous, yes. Serious, no.

Seems like this has the potential to be just another campaign thrown on the waste pile. C'mon, Alicia Silverstone naked for vegetarianism? Maybe I'm just feeling a little extra jaded today – or maybe I'm missing something – but doesn't the whole execution feel a little cheesy?

Case in point, the closing line: "It's so amazing."

How hollow can you get?

[Mark Goren]

One more thing, CK. There isn't even a link to goveg.com from the Alicia Silverstone home page. How can that even be?

[CK]

Yeah, it does come off as hollow. I just don't get why--but I do not have any problem with--her being naked. I get that naked gets attention...but they've done naked (and they did it better with Pam and the bunnies up there).

Is it because she's so natural now? Because it just smacks of a vanity play.

And, I'm tellin' ya, Toad may be right that teenagers give up meat for a while...but put the money into DECENT tasting, easy-to-make vegan food. And some good vegan fast food or lifestyle places that are like the Starbucks of the new gen.

PS: And Mark, even the links to her "favorite cosmetics" is screwed up on the PETA page. No comprendo.

[David Reich]

Hey ck --

Don't have time to read the post, but thanks for the pix. :-)

[Katie Konrath]

Alicia is definitely a beautiful women, but I don't see how her naked body is going to make people want to be a vegetarian. After all, the men aren't going to be paying attention to the message, and the women are going to be thinking at they could look a lot like that--if they had the money and time to have a personal trainer work with them everyday, and help cooking fabulously-tasty meals.

It doesn't get me excited about being a vegetarian.

I like animals too, but I simply don't have the time, energy or dedication to make vegetarian meals. Especially starting from a knowledge-base of zero.

If Peta gave me resources, and helped to develop ways to make meat-free-living fit into a busy lifestyle, I'd be very willing to give it a try. (Or at least cut back.)

Good idea, CK! A way for people to move forward instead of just shutting the door on eating meat.

[Clay Parker Jones]

PETA's been up to this a bunch lately...

Remember the video where the girl actually goes full-frontal while talking about animal cruelty? I sure do. But I still eat meat. Though their use of nudity hasn't turned me away from meat and leather, I have to commend them for using tactics that might help all of us be a little less prudish and a little more open about natural sexuality.

Anyway, I wonder what success metrics they use, and how they've changed from pre-Pamela levels. Any word from anyone on that?

Alicia is really looking great these days, by the way. Wow!