PETA cancels star-studded ‘I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur’ campaign

Elise Solé
Updated ·3 min read
Christy Turlington was one of the first celebrities to pose nude for PETA's anti-fur campaign. (Photo: PETA)
Christy Turlington was one of the first celebrities to pose nude for PETA's anti-fur campaign. (Photo: PETA)

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is ending its classic celebrity-backed “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign to pivot toward the wool, leather, and exotic skin industries.

The announcement came from PETA’s official website on Tuesday noting that, “with the use of animal fur all but over, it’s time for this iconic campaign to go the way of the mink stole.” The Virginia-based organization is putting its efforts toward the aforementioned categories with a revamped slogan.

A spokesperson for PETA tells Yahoo Lifestyle that in 1990, the organization worked with the all-female group The Go-Gos, who posed nude holding a banner that read, “We’d Rather Go-Go Naked Than Wear Fur!” on a concert tour. But when Dan Mathews, PETA’s senior vice-president of campaigns, and a friend visited Tokyo in 1992 to protest a fur convention, the slogan took on a life of its own.

“We were desperate to protest but were told that Japanese protesters just handed out leaflets,” Mathews tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “So we thought, ‘How can two people make a splash?’ We pretended we were a stripper couple who had flown to Tokyo to protest in our underwear.”

Pamela Anderson posed nude for PETA, giving fur the "cold shoulder." (Photo: PETA)
Pamela Anderson posed nude for PETA, giving fur the "cold shoulder." (Photo: PETA)
Pink's "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" PETA campaign was posted in New York City's Times Square. (Photo: PETA)
Pink's "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" PETA campaign was posted in New York City's Times Square. (Photo: PETA)
Tommy Lee stripped down for a classic PETA ad opposing the use of mink. (Photo: PETA)
Tommy Lee stripped down for a classic PETA ad opposing the use of mink. (Photo: PETA)

The stunt made local and international news, thanks to Japanese teens who helped the pair spread their message. Then came the models, such as Christy Turlington, who posed for the organization in 1993. Soon, celebrities like Pamela Anderson, Pink, Bethenny Frankel, Eva Mendes, and more hopped on the campaign. The X-Files star Gillian Anderson recently stripped down for the “liberating” act.

Mathews says fur usage has recently declined in popular culture, pointing to Queen Elizabeth’s vow to stop wearing real fur on new clothing items, designers like Donatella Versace declaring fur dated, Macy’s decision to stop selling fur, and California’s fur ban. “We now want success in other areas — there is more work to be done,” he tells Yahoo Lifestyle, adding, “Fur is passé.”

PETA is re-thinking how to market its efforts in wool, leather, and exotic skins. In 2016, Alicia Silverstone posed nude for the organization’s #WoolFreeWinter campaign with the slogan, “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Wool.”

Mathews tells Yahoo Lifestyle that a future slogan might be, “I would rather bare skin than wear skin.”

PETA recently protested one of Jennifer Lopez’s Super Bowl half-time costumes, which contained 40,000 red-white-and-blue sewn feathers (as one of her stylists Mariel Haenn revealed) to depict the American and Puerto Rican flags. “This flag could have been flown without killing birds,” tweeted PETA. “Dozens of birds were KILLED for this.”

Versace wrote on Instagram that “all feathers used for the flag were sourced ethically.”

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