ACTION ALERT * * * ACTION ALERT * * * ACTION ALERT
United Poultry Concerns March 4, 2002
AFLAC TV Commercial Degrades Ducks

Please contact AFLAC Incorporated (a supplemental medical insurance company) and urge them to stop running TV commercials that represent ducks in dangerous, unnatural, and degrading situations. Below is the contact information, and below that is UPC's letter to the company. Feel free to draw upon the information in the letter, but put it in your own words. Thank you for contacting AFLAC!

Contact:
Mr. Daniel P. Amos, Chairman & CEO
AFLAC Incorporated
1932 Wynnton Road
Columbus, GA 31999
Ph: 706-323-3431
Fax: 706-324-6330
Toll free: 800-992-3522

Mr. Al Johnson, Manager of Corporate Advertising
Same mailing info.
Ph: 706-596-3252
Email: ajohnson2@aflac.com

4 March 2002
Dear Mr. Amos:

On behalf of United Poultry Concerns, I am writing to express our objection to your Grand Canyon and Natural History commercials and to request that in future ads you do not place any more birds in literally or implicitly harmful situations.

Having talked with your advertising manager Al Johnson who faxed me the letter from the American Humane Association's communications manager Karen Rosa, I still don't know whether the duck(s) in those ads were physically harmed. But even if no ducks were harmed, the Grand Canyon commercial implies that the duck fell from an enormous height and landed hard. In the final shot it looks like the duck was pushed off something about 6 feet high. (Pekin ducks don't fly or jump from heights.)

We ask that you stop putting animal abuse images in people's minds. As a former juvenile probation officer in Baltimore who is now the head of an animal protection organization, I know that many children and teenagers are influenced by programming that treats animals derisively and/or places them in unnatural, potentially harmful situations. We ask you not to cater any further to this mentality.

We object to your Natural History ad which shows a duck (alive or simulated, but to the viewer, alive) hanging upside down in a bat cave, as in a slaughterhouse.

We request that you find ways to sell your product without using live animals and without implying that putting a live animal in a harmful or degrading situation is funny. If you plan to keep the duck logo, why not switch to a person in a costume? We simply ask that you do not promote your product at the expense of those who are vulnerable to human cruelty and abuse.

We would appreciate a response from you. Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

Karen Davis, PhD
President

United Poultry Concerns. March 4, 2002

United Poultry Concerns, Inc.
PO Box 150
Machipongo, VA 23405-0150
757-678-7875
FAX: 757-678-5070
www.upc-online.org

(Action Alert - AFLAC TV Commercial Degrades Ducks)

Home | What's New? | News Releases | Action Alerts | PoultryPress | Resources | Merchandise | Links | E-mail