Oh, PETA

What ever would we do without our favorite cultural provocateurs, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)? The organization has received a great deal of press for its recent spate of advertisements ( and rejected advertisements) that overtly use sex to promote a vegetarian lifestyle. Now, they want to slap that steamy message on a garbage truck. Because, if I’m being honest, the two things that usually spring to mind when I gaze upon a trash-filled rear-loader is 1) “H-O-T!” and 2) “I should really give up meat.”

According to the Topeka Capital-Journal, the group petitioned Topeka, Kan. Mayor Bill Bunten with a $6,000 offer to adorn one of the city’s recycling collection trucks with an image of a pert blonde in a lettuce-leaf bikini and the admonition “Vegetarians Do It to Save the Planet!” The move came after the city accepted $3,000 from KFC to fill potholes in the city’s roads and topped them with advertisements for the fast food establishment. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Bunten declined PETA’s offer.