These Are The Most Tone-Deaf And Insensitive Ads Of All Time

PETA Fat-Shamed Non-Vegetarians

Photo credit: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) posted billboards in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2009 that extolled the virtues of a vegetarian lifestyle and basically fat-shamed anyone who consumed meat. The billboards showed a drawing of an obese woman at the beach with the slogan: “Save The Whales, Lose The Blubber: Go Vegetarian.”

PETA received numerous complaints about the billboards, which they took down and replaced with one that read: “Gone: Just like all the pounds lost by people who go vegetarian.” PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk defended the campaign, saying: “America’s obesity epidemic calls for tough love…not more coddling and mock shock over a billboard.”