Tonight on “The Colbert Report” I heard about PETA’s new anti-fishing campaign, in which they refer to fish as “sea kittens” as a way to make them more appealing. From PETA’s sea kitten website:
…we’re going to start by retiring the old name for good. When your name can also be used as a verb that means driving a hook through your head, it’s time for a serious image makeover. And who could possibly want to put a hook through a sea kitten?
Here are some screenshots:
PETA sent a letter to Spearfish High School, asking them to change the name to Sea Kitten High School.
This might be a good example of how groups often try to reframe issues to change public perceptions (i.e., turning “estate tax” into “death tax”). Of course, groups vary widely in how successful they are at getting the public to accept their preferred frame, or how serious the framing attempt is. I might be underestimating them, but I seriously doubt PETA will get many people to call fish “sea kittens,” or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to oppose the “hunting of sea kittens,” aka fishing. After all, we already have catfish, and people think they’re delicious.
It’s also an example of PETA’s frequent technique of targeting children in the hope that they will then influence their parents, similarly to how marketers get kids to hound their parents for some sugary cereal instead of trying to convince the parents to buy them outright.
UPDATE: In an effort to frame PETA’s framing, a fishery observer describes the campaign as “unpatriotic” (found at NPR):
I don’t understand how it makes sense,” says fisheries observer Mary Powers, who works on fishing boats to collect data on the catches. She thinks the campaign, which encourages people to petition the Fish and Wildlife Service to stop the hunting of sea kittens, is misguided. “It seems like it’s discouraging Americans to buy our product, which I think is unpatriotic.
UPDATE: The comments to this post are great. I couldn’t help but add part of Lazercat’s: “…if fish are sea-kittens, does that make cats cannibals?”
