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Pull New Zealand's Next Top Model Crush Video Commercial
  1. Signatures
    1,691 out of 2,500
    Petitioning
    1. New Zealand's Next Top Model (+ 1 other)
      Petitioning
      close
      • New Zealand's Next Top Model
      • Channel 11
  2. Created By
    Stephanie Feldstein
    Ypsilanti, MI
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

Update: The Australian Communications & Media Authority will only accept complaints from people who live or do business in Australia. If you are an Australian resident, please complete this online form to file an official complaint: www.acma.gov.au/hotline Thanks!

Update: The New Zealand Advertising Standards Board rejected the complaint, saying that it falls outside their scope of responsibility because it is a promotion by a broadcast station for one of their own programs. The Standards Board recommended contacting the Australian Communications & Media Authority. The ACMA email address has been added below. If you've already signed or wish to send an additional personalized message, email broadcasting@acma.gov.au

Update: An article in the New Zealand Herald about this petition noted that the Australian Advertising Standards Board needs to be targeted, not the New Zealand Advertising Standards Board. The targets have been updated. I also encourage you to file a complaint using the Advertising Standards Board's online complaint form.

While advocates in the U.S. were fighting to reinstate the crush video ban, advertisers in New Zealand were creating a commercial that made a mockery of this twisted form of animal cruelty.

Crush videos are depictions of small animals being tortured, impaled, trampled, or literally crushed to death by a woman wearing high-heeled shoes to appeal to a sick sexual fetish.

The new commercial for New Zealand's Next Top Model starts with a small stuffed animal being crushed by a red high-heeled shoe. After clips of "drama" from the show, in case you missed it the first time, the commercial ends with the red high-heeled shoe crushing the stuffed animal again.

There is simply nothing funny about parodying crush videos.

Blatantly referencing an industry that's based around sexualizing animal cruelty is tasteless, as well as insulting to everyone who has worked so hard to stop crush videos. It sends the message that crushing animals is somehow amusing, acceptable or even attractive. Crush videos are animal cruelty, and in the U.S., they're illegal.

Tell New Zealand's Next Top Model that crush videos are not fashionable and ask Channel 11 to stop airing this appalling commercial and issue a public apology for their poor taste in advertising.

Photo credit: Miss Otilia Luther

Why People Are Signing
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Pull New Zealand's Next Top Model Commercial

Greetings,

I am writing in direct response to the New Zealand's Next Top Model ad, which shows a high-heeled shoe crushing a stuffed animal. I was appalled to see this blatant reference to crush videos, a sadistic form of animal cruelty where small animals are crushed by women in high heels to appeal to a certain twisted sexual fetish. (Here is the YouTube link to the ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdFEq03OxLE)

In case you are unaware, the crush video industry sexualizes the crushing, trampling, impaling and torturing of kittens and other small animals by women in high-heeled shoes. It is a particularly disturbing form of animal cruelty and this commercial sends the message that it is somehow amusing, acceptable, or even attractive.

There is nothing funny about crush videos, and in the U.S., they are illegal.

As you may know, crush videos had been banned in the U.S. until a recent court decision overturned the ban on technical grounds. Legislators and animal activists worked hard to get a new ban in place before this sick industry could resurface in the U.S. They were successful, but by parodying crush videos, the New Zealand's Next Top Model commercial turns their efforts, and the efforts of advocates fighting this animal cruelty around the world, into a joke.

It is highly disrespectful and tasteless to continue airing this commercial. There is nothing fashionable about animal cruelty.

I urge you to immediately pull this abhorrent commercial and issue a public statement of apology.

[Your name]

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