Joaquin Phoenix Billboard Set to Make a Bang at New York Fashion Week: Men’s
Award-Winning Actor, Rattled by the Extreme Cruelty of Sheep Shearing, Appears in Massive PETA Ad in the Heart of New York City
For Immediate Release:
February 2, 2018
Contact:
Audrey Shircliff 202-483-7382
Just ahead of New York Fashion Week: Men’s, PETA has placed a massive billboard featuring Joaquin Phoenix at 433 W. 30th St., near the intersection of 30th Street and Ninth Avenue in Greenwich Village, just around the corner from where the shows will take place. The striking ad, which features the Golden Globe–winning actor wearing a vegan wool suit by Brave GentleMan and proclaims, “Cruelty Doesn’t Suit Me. Wool Hurts. Wear Vegan,” is located within a mile of the Fashion Institute of Technology, Parsons School of Design, and the New York School of Design.
In a rare interview, Phoenix reveals that his motivation for doing the ad grew out of a video wake-up call. “When PETA sent me that video of this undercover investigation of what happened in these shearing farms, that was really eye-opening,” he says. “[T]he whole environment—it’s incredibly [violent]. … [T]he only option is to not use wool. That’s become abundantly clear.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—has repeatedly exposed extreme cruelty to sheep in the wool industry. Workers, who are paid by the number of animals they shear, were caught punching, kicking, and stomping on the animals, some of whom died from the abuse. When they’re no longer profitable to the wool industry, they’re slaughtered.
Phoenix is part of a long list of celebrities—including Jhené Aiko, Taraji P. Henson, Eva Mendes, Alicia Silverstone, and many others—who have teamed up with PETA to promote kinder wardrobe choices.
A provocative PETA billboard featuring Silverstone baring her bottom graced New York City and Portland, Oregon, last fall.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
