Victory! Sprint Agrees Not to Use Great Apes in Ads June 25, 2009

Posted by Rachel-O at June 25, 2009 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 ) | TrackBack

webecoist / CC

I've been holding off on buying a new Blackberry (to replace my tired and true Sidekick) for a couple of reasons. First of all, I have a whole lot of other things (vegan cupcakes, tempeh BLTs, chickette sandwiches ... ) to buy with hundreds of dollars, and secondly—up until today, Sprint was all about using live animals in their ads. If there's one thing I'm not all about, it's giving money to companies who support cruelty to animals.

Whether or not you see it, animals used in show business suffer immensely. Chimpanzees and other great apes who are forced into the entertainment industry are ripped away from their mothers when they are only days old, are trained by being beaten, kicked, and punched, and are then discarded at filthy roadside zoos when they're no longer useful in show business. Simple fact? Animals don't belong in show business, and if they could speak, who for a second doubts that they wouldn't choose freedom over slavery?

Today, Sprint, thanks to everyone who wrote to them asking them to trash their animal ads, has agreed to stop circulating the ad featuring a chimpanzee that you may have seen recently in your own local theater, and never use another great ape in upcoming ads or commercials. You can read Sprint's full statement here.

Other companies like SEGA, Honda, PUMA, Yahoo! and Levi Strauss & Co., have all agreed to make the same step towards ending cruelty to animals on the silver screen—and while some others may still be intent on hurting animals, we're sure they'll eventually come around—thanks to you!

Now, about giving up those cupcakes ...