Ask anyone on the PETA staff and they can tell you about lots of people—even hard-nosed, stalwart, meat-eating relatives—who've seen one little video clip and changed their minds about turkeys. Help everyone opt for that delicious Tofurky instead of a slice of contaminated dead turkey by cuing up one of our funny little PETA Thanksgiving public service announcements (PSAs) to provide helpful insight into why a cruelty-free feast is the way to go.

… by going vegan. Sure, we at PETA sing the praises of electric cars, but hybrid car owners who load bags of revolting meat and dairy products into their trunks need to start humming a different tune.

That's why PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman has written a letter to James Hunt, chief of Boston's Environmental and Energy Services, offering to buy space on the city's planned electric-car charging stations for PETA's "Meat's Not Green" ads.

The raising of billions of animals to become meat-lovers' main courses is a main contributor to environmental destruction—it's a leading source of greenhouse-gas emissions and causes water pollution and topsoil erosion. The meat industry runs on enormous amounts of fossil fuel and water—and the denials of those who ignore the fact that each package of meat represents immense, intense animal suffering.

Will PETA's ads grace electric-car charging stations in Boston? We'll keep you updated.

Written by Karin Bennett

Here's some monkey business that PETA applauds: BBDO's clever, cute, and completely animal-friendly new ad for GE, featuring snow monkeys who are undisturbed in their natural habitat. There's even an animatronic monkey "hand"—watch for it:

This isn't the only masterpiece from BBDO. Remember Monster.com's fiddle-playing animatronic beaver ad? That was by BBDO too. (Pop-culture mea culpa: I didn't watch the Super Bowl—I know, I know. But after watching the Monster.com ad, I'm wondering what other memorable moments I missed out on. C'est la vie.)

BBDO's innovative work and pledge never to use great apes in ads means that the agency has rejected industry exploitation of animals who are stolen from their mothers, locked in tiny cages, and subjected to daily intimidation and beatings before they are dumped at wretched roadside zoos when they grow too strong or old to perform.

For its commitment to using alternatives to animal "actors," BBDO is the newest recipient of our Humane Ad Agency Award. Of course, many other companies still abuse animals in order to sell their products. Won't you take a cue from BBDO and find out more about what you can do to help animals who are abused in the entertainment industry?

Written by Heather Drennan

Take it from someone who uses the Super Bowl as a bathroom break to get back to the main-event (commercials!): This year, the ads that were shown during the big game made history with their creative alternatives to live animals. Check out our five animal-friendly favorites:

• "Whale of a Tale," Bridgestone: Three friends. One animatronic whale. Millions of happy viewers. Bridgestone also gets extra kudos from us for recently banning the use of endangered animals in all of its commercials!
• "Timothy Richman," Cars.com: The pros of animatronic tiger cub birth: clean, cute, and pain-free. The cons of animatronic tiger cub birth? We can't think of any.
• "Finding Beaver," Monster.com: Leave it to this (CGI) beaver…to play the fiddle? Hoedown, here we come!
• "Squirrel," Honda: Why can't all hoarders be this sleek, adorable, and (faux) furry?
• "Underdog," Doritos: We yelled "Holla!" when this taunted dog flipped the tables and put the shock collar on the man. Payback is simply delicious.

Animatronics have sure come a long way since the Country Bear Jamboree. We need to get Monster.com on the Punxsutawney Phil case stat!

What was your favorite Super Bowl ad?

Written by Logan Scherer

With the Super Bowl fast approaching, all eyes are on CBS and its plans to run an anti-abortion ad featuring college-football-star-to-watch Tim Tebow, sponsored by Focus on the Family. "We have for some time moderated our approach to advocacy submissions after it became apparent that our stance did not reflect public sentiment or industry norms on the issue," said CBS spokesperson Dana McClintock—the same woman who cited the network's "general policy against airing advocacy advertisements" when CBS refused to air our "Pizza Delivery" ad in 2004.

Apparently, the times are a-changin', and we're left asking a question: Do CBS' actions herald an era in which our provocative spots will see airtime? We hope so! But for now, as the advertising debate rages on, we're happy taking a trip down memory lane. Over at Too Hot for TV headquarters, we've collected all our past banned commercials. Remember last year when NBC nixed our scintillating "Veggie Love" Super Bowl ad—and it went on to become a viral phenomenon? Well, that's only the tip of the infotainment iceberg, which includes all the classics—from "Milk Gone Wild" to Joaquin Phoenix's Thanksgiving PSA.

Here's to next year: the year we'll (hopefully) make it onto a list of top 10 Super Bowl commercials that actually aired.

Written by Logan Scherer

squidoo / CC

With 2010 fast approaching, the holiday shopping season is at its peak, and the business of year-end listmaking is well underway. We couldn't resist the urge to take inventory of '09, so we're counting down our five favorite animal-friendly ads of the year—from CGI hamsters to Claymation squirrels. The companies on our list offer further proof that promoting compassion toward animals is as easy as saying "yes" to educating people about our furry friends and saying "no" to the abuse of animals in the entertainment industry—animals who are denied food as a means of forcing them to perform on cue and who are often beaten when they don't do as commanded. Here are 2009's finest GOODY-winning marketing masterpieces:

5. AT&T: "LG Xenon Mobile Phone." When a lucky woman gets to use her cell-phone to transform the real world, the first change she makes is to swap a barbecue restaurant with a vegetarian paradise—delicious, cellular, cruelty-free brilliance.
4. Ask.com: "Mutts Are Better." In this thoughtful commercial, a man asks his wife whether purebreds or mutts are better, and she proudly answers mutts, of course! Here's another no-brainer: Is Ask.com awesome?
3. Mutual of Omaha: "Aha Moment." We still get goosebumps every time we see this mother beam over her 6-year-old son's decision to donate money to homeless animals instead of asking for birthday gifts.
2. Diamond Foods, Emerald Nuts: "The Nut Snob." Claymation squirrels with French accents—um, more, s'il vous plaît!
1. Kia Motors: "A New Way to Roll." This year, Kia taught us that vehicular envy isn't unique to the human species. Four wheels are always better than one—even if you're a CGI hamster.

Written by Logan Scherer

"Why is PETA always doing crazy stunts and demonstrations?" As a PETA Foundation employee, this is probably the number-one question I get asked. So, if you are one of those curious folks—or even if you just don't know what I'm talking about when I say "wacky PETA stunts"—you're in for a treat, because I'm about to give you the rundown of the wackiest of the wacky things that PETA and its affiliates have pulled off over the years.

Brace yourself.

10. Wienermobile Takeover
    Long before the Wienermobile nearly brought about its own demise by crashing into a suburban home, we trailed it around the country as it conducted a talent search for children to sing the Oscar Mayer theme song. At one stop, our "pig" even managed to clamber aboard the Wienermobile, and he was poised to take the fiberglass frank for a spin when he was apprehended by the authorities.
9. Grim Fairy Tale
   Mother Goose doesn't take it too kindly when her feathered brethren are force-fed so that their grotesquely enlarged livers can be sliced up and served on toast points. When she took her case to a foie gras convention in NYC, bemused police officers felt obliged to arrest her and insisted that she keep her head on during booking so that everybody in the precinct could get a "gander" at their unusual collar.
8. Cannibal Comparison
   Way back in 1991, when newspapers were abuzz with stories about Jeffrey Dahmer, we ran what is arguably our most controversial ad ever. In it, we made the point that people who are creeped out by a cannibalistic serial killer should also be creeped out by the serial killings of thousands of animals in slaughterhouses every day. Strangely, some folks found this inconvenient truth a little hard to, er, swallow.
7. KKKrazy About Dogs
   Ever notice the eerie similarities between the AKC and the KKK? No? Well, our fiendishly funny "Wrong Meeting?" TV ad, in which a Klansman shows up at an AKC meeting, spells it all out.
6. Milk Gone Wild
   When PETA's "Milk Gone Wild" spoof was rejected by Super Bowl censors, so many people flocked to MilkGoneWild.com to see what could possibly be racier than Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction that they temporarily crashed our servers.
5. Unhappy Mother's Day
   How do you spend Mother's Day if you are eight months pregnant? How about by baring it all in London to protest the filthy, cramped gestation crates that pregnant sows are forced to live in?
4. The M-Word
   After celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey served horse meat on his U.K. show The F-Word, PETA Europe made sure that everyone knew Ramsey was "full of it" when they dumped a ton of manure at his restaurant's doorstep.
3. Rest in Pieces
   PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk gave people food for thought when she released the contents of her will, which stipulates, among other things, that her feet be made into umbrella stands and that her pointing finger (no, not that finger) be mounted and sent to Ringling chief Kenneth Feld as a reminder of who's to blame for the deaths of 26 elephants (and counting).
2. Putting the 'Ma' in 'Vermont'
   When we told Ben and Jerry's that "breast is best" and asked them to start making their ice cream with (human) mother's milk, it turned into a breast-milk brouhaha.
1. Faux Father Furor
   PETA V.P. Dan Mathews was a man (of the cloth) on a mission when he talked his way into furry designer Gianfranco Ferré's 2004 Milan fashion show and leaped onto the catwalk. As security guards tackled him and tried to drag him off, they were attacked by outraged Italians who swatted them with their programs while shouting, "Leave the priest alone!"

smh.com.au / CC

If all this has left you wondering, "Why pick on cranky chefs and giant hot dogs, PETA?" you should check out The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights. The book explains why our passion for animal rights drives us to push the envelope—and push compassion into the public consciousness.

So which is your favorite PETA stunt? Spill it below.

Written by Alisa Mullins

Moms everywhere warn their children that if they lie, their noses will grow*, à la Pinocchio:

Yep, those are vegan lederhosen.

PETA Australia took that lesson to the next level when it sent one of its members to the headquarters of Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) to call out the trade group for reneging on its promise to stop mulesing (slicing flesh off lambs' backsides) by 2010.

Written by Karin Bennett

*My mom also told me that my pants would catch on fire if I lied, but for obvious reasons, PETA Australia opted to go with the puppet/boy.

Apparently, NBC has something against girls who love their veggies. After we submitted our proposed Super Bowl ad, which features a comely crop of models demonstrating their fondness for fresh produce, NBC nixed the ad, saying it "depicts a level of sexuality exceeding our standards." No joke, this is straight from NBC—so stop fondling your fruit salad right now and read the list of shots NBC requested we cut before they’d reconsider:

• licking pumpkin
• touching her breast with her hand while eating broccoli
• pumpkin from behind between legs
• rubbing pelvic region with pumpkin
• screwing herself with broccoli (fuzzy)
• asparagus on her lap appearing as if it is ready to be inserted into vagina
• licking eggplant
• rubbing asparagus on breast

Wow, that list even made us blush! You can read the full NSFW letter from NBC here and then watch the video to see what the controversy is all about.  Not as pure as eating apple pie, but it sure does drive home the fact that vegetarians make better lovers. And I'm pretty sure that most Super Bowl fans would find the ad a lot more appealing than the impotence and other not-so-sexy effects that a steady stream of chicken wings and burgers can have on their love lives.

Why so grouchy NBC? Sounds like someone’s not getting enough um…vegetables. I’m thinking network execs could really benefit from a broccoli booty call.

That said, what do you think about our sexy Super Bowl ad? Do you agree with NBC's decision to reject it?

Written by Amy Elizabeth

Those boots may be made for walkin', but were they made from an animal's sensitive skin? That may be the big question in the minds of travelers shuffling through the Memphis International Airport in the coming months.

In lieu of the nation's financial crunch, the Transportation Security Administration has decided to allow advertising on the shoe/belt/bag bins at security checkpoints in order to bring in extra revenue. Well, you can bet we're already all over this one!

In PETA's letter to the CEO of Memphis International Airport, we are requesting the right to advertise an anti-leather ad (shown below) on the shoe bins. The ad features the photograph of a "missing" calf named Charlie, who was pulled away from his mother, most likely branded without any pain relief, and eventually slaughtered for his meat. And his skin was made into someone's shoes, belt, or jacket—the very same items that get tossed into the bins at security checkpoints.

Airport advertising has the potential to reach gazillions of people, and by placing our ad in such a highly visible location we can help high-flyers get the message that leather kills—and make them think twice about their next purchases. Gorgeous, durable, cruelty-free shoes await their feet. Besides, the production of leather is catastrophic to the environment; planting a carbon offset tree for flight miles won't cover that!

Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky