Victory: JPMorgan Chase Works With PETA, Pulls Elephant Ads

Company Makes Kind and Business-Savvy Decision to Nix Campaign Showing Harmful Elephant-Bathing

For Immediate Release:
July 11, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Following discussions with PETA, JPMorgan Chase has pulled an ad campaign showing members of the public bathing two elephants and has committed to not using elephants or other wild animals in its advertising in the future.

“Elephants used in bathing and other encounters are beaten and frequently kept chained once the tourists leave, and they’re controlled through the constant threat of punishment,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Public opposition to such animal exploitation has never been stronger, and PETA commends JPMorgan Chase for acting quickly and compassionately to remove these ads.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—informed JPMorgan Chase that elephants in camps that offer bathing encounters often endure the same abuse as those used for rides do, such as being forcibly separated from their mothers, immobilized with tightly bound ropes, and gouged with nail-studded sticks or other sharp objects. All activities that involve direct contact with elephants contribute to the demand for the wild capture and captive breeding of these animals to be used at tourist attractions. In addition, such activities are dangerous and can even be fatal to humans: Not only have captive elephants been known to lash out in frustration, they also can carry tuberculosis, which they can transmit to humans.

JPMorgan Chase joins numerous companies—including Bridgestone, Johnson & Johnson, Levi Strauss & Co., and top ad agency Young & Rubicam—that have banned the use of wild animals in ads.

PETA opposes speciesism, which is the human-supremacist view that other species are nothing more than commodities. For more information, please visit PETA.org.