How NOT To Win Friends And Influence People

PETA is becoming increasingly annoying.

Seems that dissing women and slagging anyone who's not a Vegan isn't enough anymore. Now they have to bother pop icons about their choice of names.

"Dear Neil and Chris,

"You have many loyal fans of the Pet Shop Boys here at PETA. We have a request that may at first seem bizarre, but we hope that after considering the following facts, you will understand why we are asking this of you: will you please consider changing your name from the Pet Shop Boys to the Rescue Shelter Boys?"

Never mind that Pet Shop Boys have been using that name for over twenty years, and have some associations from their beginnings that have meaning and value (Wikipedia says it's about friends of theirs that worked in a pet shop, though I've heard other stories). Never mind that the name is now a known brand. Never mind that any pop band that reinvents itself with a new name essentially has to start over. And never mind that PETA is as old as the Pet Shop Boys, and could have said something decades ago, so the timing of this one is just wrong. Somehow these ethicists-cum-publicity-junkies have the losing idea that making noise about something that's been part of the popular culture for more years than I like to count now, after all this time, is somehow productive.

To their credit, Pet Shop Boys have put up a polite but firm reply to the PETA demand on their Website. I've read it: it's the nicest "go to hell" response I've encountered in a while. Good for them.

I'd like to think that, after this latest exhibition of exquisitely poor taste and timing, PETA might actually do something that doesn't involve grandstanding or valuing animals over people. Given their history, though, I fully expect them to live down to their recent history.

H/T Petulant at Shakesville.