The Offspring‘s video for their new single, “We Never Have Sex Anymore,” was criticized by PETA on Friday (May 14). In a letter addressed to singer Dexter Holland, the animal rights organization called the band out for what it said was the “egregious exploitation” of the chimpanzees in the clip.
“The out-of-touch video for ‘We Never Have Sex Anymore’ risks resurrecting the chimpanzee trade in Hollywood,” PETA wrote of the visual in which chimps dressed in clothes do household chores, sit at a dining room table, brush their teeth, visit a strip club and act “human” in various domestic scenarios. The video also features a John Stamos cameo.
“Dressing up chimpanzees, presenting their fear grimaces as ‘smiles,’ and placing them side by side with celebrities is a dangerous messaging trifecta, and there isn’t a primate expert alive who doesn’t condemn this kind of old-school exploitation,” the letter continues. “If you were going for counterculture, you hit it out of the park.”
PETA wrote that it believes the chimps in the video for the single from the band’s new Let the Bad Times Roll album came from “notorious” animal supplier Steve Martin, who the group writes has been cited by the USDA “for failing to meet the minimum standards set by the federal Animal Welfare Act, including for locking chimpanzees and orangutans in cramped, barren ‘night housing’ for up to 18 hours a day.” At press time, a spokesperson for the band had not yet returned requests for comment.
A note under the F. Scott Schafer-directed video that dropped on YouTube May 13 notes that “no animals were harmed in the making of this video.” But PETA claims that “Every minute your video remains online, it risks legitimizing a cruel industry, propping up the exotic ‘pet’ trade, and reversing years of animal advocacy work that has nearly ended the use of chimpanzees in Hollywood.” The organization requested that the band remove the video immediately.
Watch the video below.
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