PETA Launches Sexy New Anti-Fur Billboard With Penélope Cruz for Fashion Week

Fashion Icon Stars in Larger-Than-Life Garment District Ad

For Immediate Release:
February 1, 2012

Contact:
Wendy Wegner 202-483-7382 

New York -- Fashion Week starts next Thursday, and PETA is already set to greet the catwalk crowd—with a 70-foot-tall billboard featuring the latest A-list fur foe, Penélope Cruz. The Oscar winner's anti-fur message, which towers above the garment district near Penn Station, features Cruz turning her head to look over her bare back next to the slogan "Give Fur the Cold Shoulder." The billboard went up this morning and will remain up through February, and similar Fashion Week blitzes will follow in Paris, Milan, and London.

"Penélope Cruz has appeared on every 'best-dressed' list in the world, and the one thing you'll never see her wearing is fur," says PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange. "PETA couldn't ask for a more fitting emblem of the modern, glamorous woman who knows that there's nothing more beautiful than a woman who has a look that kills without anyone having to die for it."

Cruz is the latest fashion icon to speak out against fur. First ladies Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy have declared that they would never wear real fur, as have PETA campaign stars Charlize Theron, Oprah Winfrey, Pink, Pamela Anderson, and Eva Mendes.

For every coat, collar, or cuff made from fur, animals suffer immensely. Every year, millions of foxes, minks, and rabbits—even dogs and cats—are bludgeoned to death, electrocuted, or skinned alive for their pelts.

The billboard can be seen at Penn Plaza at the 33rd Street South Tower (high-resolution photos are available for download here). For more information, please visit PETA.org or click here.