United Poultry Concerns president Karen Davis has written a letter to the CEO of AFLAC Incorporated complaining about those ads featuring a duck touting AFLAC insurance.
In a press release containing a copy of the letter, UPC asked animal rights activists to, “Please Contact AFLAC Incorporated (a supplemental medical insurance company) and urge them to stop running TV commercials that represent ducks in dangerous, unnatural, and degrading situations.”
In her letter to AFLAC CEO Daniel Amos, Davis cites an ad featuring a duck apparently falling into the Grand Canyon. Davis writes,
We ask that you stop putting animal abuse images in people’s minds. As a former juvenile probation officer in Baltimore who is now the head of an animal protection agency, I know that many children and teenagers are influenced by programming that treats animals derisively and/or places them in unnatural, potentially harmful situations. We ask you not to cater any further to this mentality.
Yeah, ever since my daughter saw that ad all she can talk about is visiting the Grand Canyon to toss a duck overboard.
Actually, I’m certain that children and teenagers have a lot more common sense than Davis does. Now I would be concerned about teenagers or children who rationalized the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — as Karen Davis did — by claiming they likely reduced the total suffering in the world by eliminating so many meat eaters. Now that is truly the sign of someone excessively influenced by a sick mentality.
Source:
UPC Action Alert: AFLAC TV Commercial Degrades Ducks. United Poultry Concerns, Press Release, March 4, 2002.