ADVERTISING ANIMAL PROTECTION

Animal protection advocates are making use of paid and public service advertising to promote the interests of animals. One advertising appro ach, the graphic portrayal of animal suffering, has generated controve rsy within and beyond the animal protection movement. Research suggest s that the approach can be effective in stimulating those viewing the advertisement to take action on behalf of animals. Other advertising s trategies that may be capable of provoking more humane treatment of an imals include tacit depictions of animal suffering and reversing human -animal traits and situations through therianthropic and unconventiona l anthropomorphic imagery. Advertisements from current and former anim al protection campaigns were reviewed for examples of these animal rep resentational strategies. This is the Fnal in a series of papers on th e role of mass media in animal protection. Previous articles detailed a history of media coverage of animal protection issues, the role of t he media in the animal rights movement, and the effect of the media on public policy decisions concerning animals (Jones 1996, 1997a and b).