‘Give a Cluck, Shaq!’: Giant ‘Chickens’ to Appeal to Basketball Superstar Turned Restaurateur

As Part of the Super Bowl Wings Rebellion, PETA’s Giant ‘Birds’ Will Give Away Vegan Fried Chicken Outside NBA Champ’s Chicken Restaurant

For Immediate Release:
February 7, 2022

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

PETA’s “chickens” have a bone to pick, and they’ve now entered the “chicken wars” with a first stop at Shaquille O’Neal’s Big Chicken restaurant, where they will be passing 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 himself, 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:    Tuesday, February 8, 12 noon

Where:    252 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale

“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 a sky-high message along I-405 proclaiming, “Go vegan for your halftime snack,” and an edgy Super Bowl video spot to run locally on the NFL Network. The 30-second spot—which will also debut 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.