As some of you may know, we have a segment on the pod called "Who's Slumping" where we find news stories throughout the week where a certain person/ group of people are in a real life slump. There’s one organization that I know will be a frequent customer, PETA.
PETA is an animal rights non profit whose stance is to protect animals at absolutely every cost. They push vegan diets and are absolutely opposed to any type of hunting whatsoever. They better go ahead and start lining up some slump busters, and A LOT of them. The latest ridiculousness out of PETA’s camp was a plea to change the name of the “Bullpen” to “Arm Farm” (which is an objectively awesome name) out of respect to the cows. Now personally, I have the utmost respect for the cows, and would never want to offend them, but I have never ever associated the term “Bullpen” to anything cattle related. Maybe that’s just me being socially illiterate, but I find it hard to believe that someone came up with this theory and truly meant it.
That’s when I got to thinking, maybe we have looked at this all wrong. Nobody can truly be that split between nonsensical and creative. Therefore, I am officially starting the “PETA is a content genius” bandwagon. I thoroughly believe they have taken the Skip Bayless approach of staying relevant. Just when PETA feels they are falling out of the news cycle, they release a take that is somewhere between not believable and newsworthy. It is genius. My respect level for this organization has turned the fastest 180 possible. Let’s dive in deeper.
In 2017, PETA wrote an article titled “Help us stick it to Hunters” where they replaced the hunter's picture of the animal that was killed, with a picture of a vegetable or fruit.
Have to admit, they stuck it to them. Then In 2019, PETA got a rise out of popstar Justin Bieber when they criticized his decision to spend 35,000 dollars on a couple of rare cats. Bieber pretty much gave them the middle finger and said that he could do whatever he wanted. Lastly, and this is recent, there was a man in Utah who shot his own Dad over a dispute involving CHICKEN WINGS! The father survived, but the son is obviously headed to slammer. But do not fear, PETA was on the case to solve the important issues. They are requesting this man be fed only vegan meals while he is in prison. PETA’s executive vice president, Tracy Reiman, is quoted saying
“Suliafu (the shooter) could have killed his father over receiving a chicken wing order he didn’t like—vegan foods could diminish that bloodthirst and might even help protect staff and neighboring inmates,”
So no need to worry about the violent streak that Suliafu clearly possesses, inmates everywhere should be safe thanks to PETA standing their ground. You know the old saying, meat = melee.
As you can see, this organization is getting uproars out of Justin Bieber, sticking it to hunters on social media, and requesting vegan meals for an attempted murderer. I used to read these headlines and shake my head in utter bewilderment, but no longer. I have decided that PETA is quite possibly a top content creator of our era. They have an incredible knack to constantly stay in the news cycle and live in public conversation. That is the entire idea behind content creation, all publicity is good publicity. Not only are they telling folks to change the name “Bullpen”, but they are replacing it with straight heat. We have overlooked this titan of the content industry for much too long, it’s time to pay attention.