The morons at PETA have released another Pokemon parody to take advantage of the hype surrounding Pokemon X and Pokemon Y. The latest misguided attempt to raise awareness to the organization’s cause is Pokemon Red, White, & Blue. This time around, the group is challenging people to evolve (get it?!?) by urging them to become vegetarian or vegan. Here’s an excerpt from the campaign:
For generations, humans have loved Pokémon, but if Pokémon came to our world and saw how we treated animals, would they love us back? Be a hero for real-life animals by pledging to try vegan.
With the huge selection of delicious vegan meats and alternatives to dairy foods and eggs available, there’s no excuse not to give a vegan diet a try. We’ll send you delicious recipes and tips for living cruelty-free to help you along the way.
Some of you will recall that PETA has a history of picking on wholesome and harmless Nintendo games. In the past, it went after Super Mario Bros. 3D Land with Super Tanooki Skin 2D and attacked Pokemon with Pokemon Black & Blue.
While there are certainly several great reasons to become vegan or vegetarian — both for personal health and the good of the environment — it’s hard to take PETA seriously given its history with Nintendo. When you see mainstream media go after Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty, you can see how a violent videogame can be taken out of context to blame social disorders and further an agenda. Exploiting a Super Mario Bros. game or a Pokemon game is just dumb. At worse, those games aren’t the least bit offensive. At best, they’re quite positive. Twisting them in a negative way in order to push your message is pathetic.
Personally, I would love to be vegan or vegetarian. After thinking about PETA’s use of Pokemon to push a meat-free agenda, I want to devour a Smith & Wollensky ribeye.
Anyway, what do you think of PETA’s latest use of Nintendo characters to promote its agenda? Do you agree that it’s a bad way to push a good message? Would any of you like to join me for some all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ in PETA’s honor?
There’s no good Korean BBQ place where I live.
Am sad now.
-M
Upon further thought… I thought PETA was against the unethical treatment of animals. Which to me means that if you kill the animal in a humane (quick & painless) way, they would be OK with that. I never thought them to be a militant vegetarian group, hell bent on keeping every animal* alive. I mean, I’m against torturing animals (and humans, unless your last name rhymes with “Blocklick”) but it seems that the organization has moved beyond that.
I mean, if anything, I would have ragged on Pokemon for their subtle hints of cannibalism:
And while we’re on the subject; why are they picking on McDonald’s? Why not the other fast food restaurants as well? What did McDonald’s do do deserve the “whipping boy” status?
-M
*Every animal = 95% mammals and fowl.