If it’s a day that ends in –y, PETA is pissed off at someone famous for something they did with an animal or animal byproduct. In this case, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are fired up at One Direction over the band’s wacky new video for the single “Steal My Girl.” It’s not because the music video has one of those pointless long intros that tells a dumb story or the fact that Harry Styles’ hair looks like he fell asleep under an alpaca. It’s not even because the song is really hard to listen to and the video has the guys dancing with sumo wrestlers.
Instead, it’s because One Direction’s new video has a monkey wearing sunglasses in it.
How angry is PETA? Angry enough to take out a full page ad in The Hollywood Reporter to call One Direction out for their crimes against primates. Per PETA’s blog, the organization is raging mad that One Direction refused to cave to the supposed demands of their insanely loyal followers that the monkey’s scenes from “Steal My Girl” be edited out of the finished product.
In response, PETA will be releasing a full-page ad in The Hollywood Reporter that proclaims, “One Direction made a wrong turn when they used a chimpanzee in their recent music video.”
“PETA’s ad reminds Hollywood of what they won’t see on set—that baby apes are torn from their mothers at birth, abused during training, and then discarded at decrepit facilities,” says PETA Foundation Deputy General Counsel Delcianna Winders.
While the ad was revealed last week, it will be featured in next week’s issue of THR. What will be most interesting is whether or not PETA can handle the pressure from One Direction’s fans once the band’s members tell them to unleash their unholy fury in retaliation. Like PETA, they tend to be a little overzealous.