‘Give a Cluck, Shaq!’: ‘Commando Chicks’ Plead to Basketball Superstar Turned Restaurateur
For Immediate Release:
February 8, 2022
Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382
PETA’s “Commando Chicks”—showgirls in faux-feathered headdresses—will make a splash outside Shaquille O’Neal’s Big Chicken restaurant, where they will pass out free vegan KFC in a push to get him to introduce vegan chicken at his eateries. He’d be joining Pinky Cole, Jermaine Dupri, Chris Paul, Colin Kaepernick, John Salley, and so many others in helping people to be healthy, humane, and environmentally conscious. PETA has also written to the “Big Diesel,” pointing out that as a Beyond Meat investor, he already knows that vegan chicken is the future, the future is now, and eating vegan gives athletes and others more stamina and prevents birds from being reduced to Super Bowl “snacks.”
When: Thursday, February 10, 12 noon
Where: 4480 S Paradise Rd., #1200, Las Vegas
“Until he introduces a vegan option, there’s a Shaq-sized gap on the Big Chicken menu,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “With our ‘Fight the Bite’ campaign, PETA hopes to sign up customers to the birds’ side of the ‘chicken wars’ and let them keep their wings.”
The giveaway is part of PETA’s “Fight the Bite” campaign—a national effort aimed at slashing the estimated 1 billion chicken wings consumed during the Super Bowl last year. Actions include an edgy Super Bowl video spot to run locally during sports programs on CBS the day before the big game and on NBC and Telemundo—in a special Spanish-language version—during pre-game programming on Super Bowl Sunday. The 30-second spot—which debuted nationally on ESPN and ESPN Deportes—uses “security cam” footage to show what happens to diners in various places, from couches to carryouts, when chicken dinners suddenly become living, squawking birds with a bone to pick about being fried for food.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—offers free vegan starter kits as well as a list of ready-to-heat plant-based wings available at grocery stores and many other easy vegan game day recipes.
For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
