PETA’s hard-fought battle against fur is finally over, and they have emerged from it victorious. Their long-running sex-forward campaign, “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur”, has achieved exactly what it sought to do.
Harnessing the star power of celebrities like Tyra Banks and Pamela Anderson, PETA created a series of attention-grabbing, instantly-recognisable political statements by featuring nude glamour shots in their iconic anti-fur ads. Now, in fashion’s current landscape, the animal rights group feels that their consciousness-raising campaign is no longer relevant.
“It’s kind of rare for a charity to be able to cancel a campaign because of its success,” Dan Matthews, PETA’s senior vice president of campaigns, told CNN. “We all struggled for so long to make headway, but I think the tipping point has been reached in the past few years, with so many people and designers turning off of fur.”
Indeed, some of the most influential names in the business have come out against fur in recent years. The laundry list of industry titans who have promised to never again use the material in their collections includes Gucci’s Alessandro Michele and Marco Bizzarri, Donatella Versace, and Giorgio Armani.
Even those who haven’t pledged against fur explicitly — such as Marc Jacobs, who “would never say ‘never’ about anything” (come on, Marc) — continue to only show faux fur on their runways.
However, PETA isn’t going to let fashion off the hook that easily, or mothball their most eye-catching campaigning tactic. The group have announced that they still plan to use images of naked celebrities to raise awareness for various other causes in the future: Matthews has tipped off that upcoming targets are “leather, wool and exotic skin”. They even have a slogan for their anti-leather campaign already: “I’d Rather Bare Skin Than Wear Skin.” Some things never change!
