PETA Cries Fowl Over Fox’s Rejection of Anti-KFC Ad

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Angered that Fox Aired White House Office of National Drug Control Policy During Super Bowl XLII

By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/7/2008 5:30:00 PM

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals accused Fox of double standards when it comes to paid advertising.

Fox rejected PETA ads critical of fast-food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken that the animal-rights nonprofit group attempted to place during Super Bowl XLII and was willing to pay $2.1 million apiece for.

Fox declined to sell PETA airtime citing a network policy of not accepting “viewpoint or issue-advocacy” ads. PETA representatives seemed to accept the network’s reasoning until they saw an ad from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy during the network’s telecast of Super Bowl XLII.

The PETA spots -- which are running on the organization’s Web site with the tag, “Banned on Fox Television” -- feature an ominous Colonel Sanders-like character presiding over the torture and killing of chickens at a desolate and dusty compound.

PETA has targeted KFC for several years, staging protests at restaurants and commissioning undercover investigations at the company’s suppliers’ slaughterhouses for what it terms abusive and inhumane practices.

According to a Fox spokesperson, the network makes a distinction between ads that advocate a specific viewpoint and ads that “serve to inform” the public on an “issue of concern.”

“Fox’s policy of deciding what does or doesn’t constitute an ‘issue of concern’ is disingenuous wordplay and outright censorship because all causes -- from drug abuse to animal abuse -- advocate an end to the cause of the problem, whether drug pushers or KFC,” said Ingrid E. Newkirk, PETA’s president and founder.

“Cruelty to animals has been found in innumerable studies to be of concern to most Americans, and it is only right to allow PETA to tell consumers that KFC’s suppliers slit the throats of conscious chickens, break their legs and wings and drop them into tanks of scalding-hot water while they’re still alive,” she added.

The Office of Drug Control Policy spot cautioned parents to keep their children away from prescription drugs in the home. The ad -- which ran with the cautionary tag, “Teens don’t need a drug dealer to get high. Safeguard your prescriptions. Safeguard your teens.” -- featured a drug dealer standing on a city corner lamenting his lack of business.

The spot was paid advertising, the Fox spokesperson said, but the network has also run public-service announcements from the Office of Drug Control Policy.

KFC has also advertised on Fox and attempted to wrangle some free publicity during Super Bowl XLII by offering to donate $260,000 to charity in the names of the first player from each team who performed at least three seconds of a “wing-flapping” chicken dance on air.

A National Football League spokesperson called the stunt “a textbook case of ambush marketing 101.” The league put the kibosh on the stunt, suggesting that any player intentionally incorporating a corporate message could face fines.