PETA has never shirked from showing human skin in the name of saving the hides of beasts both wild and domesticated. Yet the organization's latest publicity scheme takes mere nudity one step further — past second base, 'round third, and all the way home. PETA's newest online venture won't just be a source of animal cruelty watch-doggerel and veggie burger recipes, but instead a porn site where activists can walk their dogs, diddle their skittles, and take in a seal-clubbin' in just a few clicks. Believe it or not, according to PETA spokesperson Lindsay Rajt, this move will get PETA some attention:

We live in a 24 hour news cycle world and we learn the racy things we do are sometimes the most effective way that we can reach particular individuals. We really want to grab people's attention, get them talking and to question the status quo and ultimately take action, because the best way we can help the greatest number of animals is simply by not eating them.

Wow, how meta. PETA says it's launching a porn site to tap into the 24-hour news cycle, and everyone who happens to be enslaved to the 24-hour news cycle (not us or anything) writes about it — and must, by extension, mention the fact that PETA is announcing this plan in order to get everyone enslaved to the 24-hour news cycle to write about it. How the layers of a bulger-and-tempeh-stuffed onion peel away.

The actual effectiveness and appeal of the supposed site is much harder to fathom, especially because we don't see the project lasting much more than 24 hours. We get the idea that some graphic undercover stacks-of-pigs factory farm footage might pair well with stacks of wriggling human flesh in an undergraduate feminist theory paper, but we don't get how the combination will attract an actual following. For all its variations, porn is porn, and if those who seek any particular sort can get it without paying for it, they'll also make a point of getting exactly what they want without a side of pro-vegan proselytizing — which is a shame, because PETA's marketing campaigns suck a lot more than many (though not all) of its messages.

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