Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, is targeting Taco Bell in a campaign that launches on Friday.
However, the attention is positive.
PETA said it will post billboards near Taco Bell locations in Florida, Georgia and New York, encouraging customers to order vegan menu items available at chain’s more than 6,100 domestic locations.
Using the Yum! Brands subsidiary’s tagline, the billboards depict a chicken next to the message, “Let’s All ‘Live Más.’ Would it Kill You to Get a Bean Burrito?”
Although Taco Bell is often thought of as catering to young, hungry, meat-eating men, it has long served vegetarian items, including its popular bean burritos.
In 2015, Taco Bell had 13 menu items certified as vegetarian by the American Vegetarian Association, including its 7-Layer Burrito and Cantina Power Veggie Bowl. The chain has 35 AVA-certified vegetarian ingredients, of which 26 are vegan.
"We’re all about providing people with choices, whether it’s a Bean Burrito from our certified vegetarian menu, to our Triple Double Crunchwrap," Rob Poetsch, Taco Bell's director of public affairs and engagement, wrote in an email. "We're proud to have something for every lifestyle."
As part of the campaign, PETA’s “Lettuce Ladies,” scantily clad women wearing only lettuce, will hand out free been burritos outside certain Taco Bell locations, PETA wrote in an email.
The group’s youth division, PETA2, has also prepared a guide for modifying Taco Bell items to make them vegan.
A spokesman for PETA said the campaign would last for at least a month.
Update: April 5, 2017 This story has been updated with a comment from Taco Bell.
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