(US) Anti-Milk Billboards Caught in Swirl of Controversy

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PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,

threatened on Monday to sue an advertising company

for removing PETA-funded billboards using

the milk-mustachioed image of

New York City's Mayor Rudolph Giuliani

in an anti-milk campaign.

 

http://dailynews./h/nm/20000828/pl/people_giuliani_dc_1.html

 

Monday August 28 6:25 PM ET

Anti-Milk Billboards Caught in Swirl of Controversy

By Patrick Rizzo NEW YORK (Reuters) -

 

There seems to be very little milk of human kindness in the current

controversy over milk.

 

PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, threatened on Monday to

sue an advertising company for removing PETA-funded billboards using the

milk-mustachioed image of New York City's Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in an

anti-milk campaign.

 

Giuliani, in turn, who did not give PETA permission to use his image, has

said he is considering suing PETA over the billboards.

 

The billboards depict the mayor, who in April announced he has prostate

cancer, with a milk mustache next to the caption: ''Got Prostate Cancer?

Drinking milk contributes to prostate cancer'' -- a spoof of the dairy

industry's ``Got Milk?'' advertising campaign.

 

Giuliani last Friday called the billboards tasteless and said he was

considering a lawsuit.

 

PETA said that French Advertising Inc sent it a letter on Friday saying it

was removing the billboards in three locations in Wisconsin. PETA has one

billboard left, in Pennsylvania.

 

The group has not found a company in New York City willing to use the

advertisement.

 

A letter from PETA's attorney to French Advertising, dated August 28, said

the firm's decision to remove the billboards was a breach of contract that

may prompt PETA to sue the company.

 

" Your unilateral and unjustified decision to abandon your obligations to

PETA in furtherance of its efforts to educate the public to the cruelty and

ill health effects of milk consumption is improper and, quite frankly,

cowardly, in that it was motivated not by any failure to fulfill the terms

of the contract, but by publicity generated by the billboards,'' the letter

by PETA attorney Matthew Penzer said.

 

French Advertising was not immediately available to comment.

 

PETA says there is a link between drinking milk and prostate cancer and

that the dairy industry causes suffering for calves which are slaughtered

for veal when their mothers' milk is sold. According to The American Cancer

Society's Prostate Cancer Resource Center, the causes of prostate cancer,

which kills thousands of men in the United States each year, are not

completely understood, though the risk of getting it increases in men who

eat a lot of fatty foods and not enough fruit and vegetables.

 

At a news conference on Monday, Giuliani said he was unhappy that PETA

still had the Pennsylvania billboard and reiterated that he was considering

a lawsuit.

 

" I'm not happy about that at all, they still have at least one up in

Pennsylvania, and I think what they did constitutes false advertising,

invasion of privacy, lots of other things, so I'm considering suing,'' the

mayor said.

 

PETA said last week their campaign would be more effective using a

high-profile figure like Giuliani, who announced in May he was dropping out

of the U.S. Senate race against first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton partly

because of his prostate cancer.

 

It also said the famously combative mayor does not have a case.