The National Football League (NFL) apparently found our Colin Kaepernick–inspired ad—with its message of inclusion and respect—too daring and pressured FOX to snub our commercial.

In 2016, Kaepernick put a national spotlight on the racial inequality that plagues the U.S.—and we applaud him for doing so with the simple yet powerful and peaceful act of taking a knee.

PETA worked with a talented group of advertisers and artists who came up with the idea for our beautiful ad. Positively acknowledged by Kaepernick himself, this project pays homage to all movements that remind us to open our hearts and minds and reject all forms of injustice, including sexism, ableism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and speciesism.

Who would choose to be seen as an object there for the taking—to be caged or chained, used as a laboratory tool and poisoned to test a chemical, killed for a meal or a bag, or viewed as an object of amusement?

Humans may differ in appearance from the birds, fish, and other animals who share the world with us. But we all think and feel, and when it comes to the capacity for pain, hunger, fear, thirst, love, joy, and loneliness or simply the desire to live, we’re all the same.

Speciesism—like any form of discrimination—is a supremacist worldview. It allows humans to disrespect other living, feeling beings and to treat their interests as unimportant.

We know in our hearts that all individuals want to be free and stay alive. No group chooses to be exploited, threatened, or killed because they’re misunderstood and seen as different in trivial ways.

The way we think about other animals continues to evolve as we learn more about them and become awestruck by their innate intelligence, self-awareness, communication skills, social structures, and unique abilities.

Mothers, from cows to crocodiles, adore their offspring and try hard to protect them. Fish pass down culture through generations. Pigs are social, playful beings who like to cuddle. Crows hold grudges and remember the faces of humans who are kind or cruel to them. Turkeys could be called “helicopter parents” because of how protective they are. Male mice sing to females, and bower birds decorate their porch to seduce a potential partner. The point is that humans are one type of animal among many, and the others are just like us in the ways that matter most.

The NFL may be unconcerned with inequality, but we at PETA are activists who will continue to work to dismantle all forms oppression.

Ad Credits
Director: Fons Schiedon
Production Company: United Tricks, Inc.
Designers: Félicie Haymoz, Julien De Man, Fons Schiedon, Lia Mchedlishvili
Animation Services: Birdo
Music & Sound Design: Bram Meindersma

PETA urges everyone who believes in equity and justice to expand their circle of compassion and reject speciesism.

Let’s break free of outdated beliefs that trivialize violence against other animals and that make routine cruelty and abuse acceptable.

Times change, but change happens only when enough people rise up against cruelty and injustice —when we cast off our old prejudices and see ourselves in everyone else.