Alicia Silverstone Bares All in PETA Ad Proclaiming, ‘Wear Vegan’
Wearing nothing but vegan leather boots in a field of cacti, actor Alicia Silverstone greets holiday shoppers in a new PETA ad with the message “Don’t Be a Prick. Wear Vegan.” In the ad, which also appears on a billboard in New York’s Times Square, Silverstone and PETA remind everyone that they can choose innovative vegan leathers made from the prickly pear cactus, apples, or mushrooms instead of supporting industries that kill animals for their skin.
“I never, ever, get naked in TV, in film, nothin’ … But I’ve done it for PETA ’cause that’s how much it matters to me,” says the vegan star in an exclusive video interview in which she explains leather’s devastating effects on the planet. “[T]he amount of resources, water, food, oil for transport, the amount of energy that goes into making leather is extraordinary. It’s just not sustainable. The Earth can’t handle it.”
Compared with the production of plant-based leathers, that of cow leather has nearly 10 times the negative environmental impact and contributes more to climate change, water pollution, water depletion, and greenhouse gas emissions. Up to 80% of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest has been caused by the destruction of land in order to raise animals, and 130 different chemicals, including cyanide, are used to turn their skin into leather. Many of the millions of cows killed for leather endure castration, branding, and tail-docking – all without painkillers – and at slaughterhouses, animals are sometimes skinned while they’re still conscious. A PETA Asia investigation in Thailand and Cambodia revealed that workers repeatedly bashed cows over the head with sledgehammers.
A supporter since her Clueless days, Silverstone is part of a long list of celebrities – including Penélope Cruz, Jenna Dewan, Taraji P Henson, Eva Mendes, and Olivia Munn – who have helped PETA entities worldwide promote humane wardrobe choices.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.
