As if having a child with an incurable disorder isn’t bad enough, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) created an ad campaign that guilt-trips parents by citing the bowl of cereal they serve for breakfast as the cause of their child’s life-impeding illness. Such fear-mongering is extremely prevalent in the media nowadays. Society’s preferred reaction to the unknown- namely, the cause of a disease- is to create an unfounded cloud of panic. Theories about the origins of autism in children range from vaccines to religious punishment, neither of which are based on solid scientific evidence– which begs the question:
“What was PETA thinking?”
Firstly, the sad Cheerio face and the dull colors of the advertisement necessarily imply that having autism is a catastrophe. There is an air of hopelessness to the image that removes all possibility of joy in an autistic childhood. Certainly, the disease is frustrating and extremely difficult to manage, but kids with autism are just that- kids. PETA feeds the societal stigma around disabilities that ousts so many people simply because of a mental or physical impediment. It is appeals to fear like PETA’s advertisement that display disabled people as mistakes to correct instead of as humans to embrace.
PETA’s persuasive appeals to fear link illness to the dairy industry, as it not-so-subtly references the California Milk Processor Board’s advertising campaign: “Got milk?” The organization’s conclusion is wrongly based on a largely discredited study, yet their message is clear and loud- down to the font size. “Got” and “Autism” are the two largest words on the advertisement, while the message inviting the reader to learn about the evidence is the smallest. Logic comes second for PETA, clearly, and fear-based strategies come first. It wrongly insinuates a causal relationship between milk (a food parents are constantly told to give their kids more of) and autism to prey on innocent citizens and get them to align with their message.
The bright color of PETA’s logo subconsciously places a halo of purity around the organization since it contrasts the rest of the somber advertisement. The spoon also plays a part in the advertisement’s manipulation of color. Since it is glossy and not in contact with the dairy, it appears wholesome and uncontaminated. The organization’s strategies put it on a pedestal and force the average bystander to prefer their stance on dairy and disease over any other. Ultimately, we as consumers must realize that PETA is not out to protect our children from illness but, rather, it is out to further its own agenda.