PETA

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Foundation, better known as PETA, ran the above poster that claimed eating meat increased the risk of heart disease and cancer. PETA’s advertisement seems to imply that letting your child eat meat is just as bad as letting him chomp on a cigar while looking at a picture book. And everyone knows book learnin’ is the most harmful of those three activities.*

*This may not be true.

Folks in the UK complained to the The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is a self-regulatory body that monitors advertising in the United Kingdom. about the advertisement. After reviewing the claims, the ASA ruled that the ads were misleading and claims that eating meat causes cancer could not be substantiated. The ASA said this on PETA’s ad:

We considered that because the ad likened the risks associated with eating any kind of meat to the risks of smoking, consumers would understand from the ad that the connection between eating any kind of meat and the risk of heart disease and cancer had been proven, which was clearly not the case, and we therefore concluded that the ad was misleading.

Clearly. The ASA told PETA it could no longer run the ad in its current form. For more on meat and meat labeling, click here.