Dairy products have always been a part of our diet for thousands of generations. They are rich in protein are the primary source of nutrition for many young and some adults. However, in 2014, an animal rights organization People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) launched an anti-milk campaign ad to alert the public of their claim that there is a link between the consumption of dairy products to autism. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurological growth disorder in which the individual varying degree of “difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors.”(www.autismspeaks.org) ASD can cause dysfunction in everyday life by impairing intellectual abilities, motor coordination, attention, …show more content…
In an online article published on psychologytoday.com claimed that “There are many things that motivate us. But the most powerful motivator of all is FEAR.Fear is a primal instinct that served us as cave dwellers and today. It keeps us alive, because if we survive a bad experience, we never forget how to avoid it in the future. Our most vivid memories are born in Fear. Adrenaline etches them into our brains. Nothing makes us more uncomfortable than fear” (Wilson). This ad used the fear that parent have for the safety of their child and uncomfortableness to make them feel insecure about their choices and become easily sway. Knowing that very few parent will take the chance of putting their child in risk of getting autism, this claim force them to pick the less risky option of not feeding their child dairy product to avoid any chance of the claim being true …show more content…
Knowing full well the extreme protective nature of the relationship between parent and child, PETA used this ad to manipulate parents into aiding and promote their animal rights campaign and stop feeding their child milk. By claiming there is a link between dairy products and autism, PETA successfully instill a misinformed sense of fear into their audience even without any solid or conclusive evidence that dairy product directly cause autism. The combination of the simplistic nature of the ad and the vagueness of its claim contribute to its effectiveness by allowing a larger number of people to understand become one of its many victims. In addition, they did an exceptional job at attacking the “got milk?” ad campaign by mimicking their slogan with their own. Even though it doesn’t fool those who actually spend some time looking deeper into the claim, PETA has no doubt convinced many people to give up milk and other dairy products in their diet through this ad and successfully achieve their