‘Wear Something Vegan’ Ad Blitz Hits Rochester—and Sends Forever 21 a Message

Bus Ads Urge Consumers to Steer Clear of Cruelly Obtained Wool, Shop Vegan

For Immediate Release:
February 25, 2019

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

As part of its international campaign to persuade Forever 21 to ban wool, PETA has placed four ads on buses operating near the retailer’s Rochester store that show an image of a lamb alongside the words “We’re Individuals. We’re Not Sweaters. Wear Something Vegan.” The ads will be up for five weeks.

“Gentle sheep are beaten and mutilated for wool sweaters, hats, and scarves, and Forever 21 is profiting from their suffering,” says PETA Campaign Manager Christina Sewell. “PETA’s ads encourage shoppers to show retailers that they don’t support cruelty to animals by leaving wool items on the rack and opting for chic and humane vegan clothing instead.”

PETA and its affiliates have released 11 exposés of 99 sheep-shearing and farming operations on four continents revealing that the animals are beaten, stomped on, mutilated, and even skinned alive for wool. Because shearers are typically paid by volume, not by the hour, they’re driven to work quickly and carelessly. Strips of sheep’s skin—and even pieces of their ears—are cut or torn off during shearing, and the most gaping wounds are stitched up without any pain relief. PETA has shared all this with Forever 21—but the company has refused to act.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—is also targeting Forever 21 with ads in Buffalo and Syracuse, New York; Louisville, Kentucky, and Fort Wayne, Indiana, running a total of 30 ads in the four cities.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.