Emirates rejects PETA ad as too graphic

Dubai’s Emirates Airline is among a number of Gulf carriers which has deemed a new advert by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) activist group as too graphic to appear in their in-flight magazines, Arabian Business has learned.

The US-based international animal rights organisation created a new advert featuring a picture of Australian sheep being shipped to the Middle East with the strapline ‘AND YOU THOUGHT ECONOMY CLASS WAS CRAMPED!’

However, PETA’s attempt to book advertisement space in several prominent Gulf carriers’ in-flight magazines has been met with opposition, including Dubai Emirates Airline, the largest carrier in the Middle East.

“I tried to place it in the Emirates’ Open Skies - their in-flight magazine - but unfortunately it was rejected… They decided the content was too graphic,” Ashley Fruno, PETA’s senior campaigner for the Middle East and Asia, told Arabian Business.

“We are still trying to place [the ad] in different airline magazine around the Middle East and hopefully make people realise in a way that can relate to it what a live export ship is like for these animals,” she added.

Emirates declined to comment on why it had rejected PETA’s advert, but Fruno said she is in the process of trying to book the advert in other in-flight magazines but has yet to have any success.

“We have applied for several that haven’t refused yet. I expect the reason it is delayed is that there could be more rejections unfortunately. Generally, when someone is looking to place an ad if they want to take their money they reply quickly,” she said.

PETA said in July 2010 it was planning to place two permanent campaigners in the Middle East, but this has now been put on hold.

“We haven’t set up a headquarters in the Middle East yet but it is, of course, we are looking to do in the future and to have people there and eventually have an office there,” Fruno said.