Action Alerts
ShareThis
Chimpanzee Image on Jon Stewart's Book: Earth
September 24, 2010
Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show has recently published a book called Earth: A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race which features an image of a chimpanzee sitting side by side with Stewart. He is doing a disservice to the efforts of primate protection by instead choosing to exploit this chimpanzee for a cheap laugh. Although the image appears to be a stock photo and was not newly shot for this campaign, the harmful message still remains.
Please send a polite letter to Jon Stewart and The Daily Show urging him to reconsider the book’s cover design. Your letters can make a difference – very recently, WECU bank in Washington chose to remove posters that featured great apes and change their entire advertising campaign after hearing from concerned advocates.
Let them know that chimpanzees cannot be trained for entertainment by positive reinforcement alone, and brutal training practices in the entertainment industry are well documented. Remind them that in addition to welfare concerns, using chimpanzees in the media seriously hinders conservation efforts of free-living chimpanzees.
You may send your letter to Comedy Central's contact form. Be sure to select “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” under the topic drop menu.
Or you can “like” their Facebook page (either for the show in general or for the book specifically) and leave a succinct comment there.
Sample Letter for the Contact Form:
Dear Mr. Stewart:
I was shocked and disappointed to hear that you chose to use an image of a young chimpanzee on the cover of your recent book release. Using a chimpanzee on your book cover sends the message that these amazing beings are simply props. Surely you are aware that chimpanzees are endangered species in critical need of protection? Regardless of the source of this photo, you are exploiting chimpanzees for your own profits and this is an unacceptable business practice.
Please make the compassionate decision to remove the current cover from rotation, and please commit to never using images that exploit great apes for promotion purposes again. Thank you for your consideration of my comments on this urgent matter, and I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
[Your name here]
[Your city & state]
Sample Comment on the Facebook Page:
I was shocked and disappointed to hear that you chose to use an image of a young chimpanzee on the cover of your recent book release. Using a chimpanzee on your book cover sends the message that these amazing beings are simply props. Chimpanzees are in critical need of protection and the use of their image for a cheap laugh on your book only perpetuates their exploitation. Please make the compassionate decision to reconsider the book’s cover image. Thank you.
**If you write a letter and/or leave a Facebook comment, please copy and paste in an e-mail to PrimatePatrol@ChimpSanctuaryNW.org for tracking purposes.