S. Samuel
Southern rapper Waka Flocka Flame's much talked about nude PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) "Ink, Not Mink" campaign officially launched today.
According to reports, Waka is the first rapper to take part in the “Ink, Not Mink” promotion.
Wearing nothing but strategically placed teddy bear and camera necklaces, Waka Flocka Flame is the first rapper to star in PETA’s Ink, Not Mink ad campaign. He shows off his tattoos, and a lot of skin, in the new ad, which urges, “Ink, Not Mink. Be Comfortable in Your Own Skin and Let Animals Keep Theirs. (USA Today)
Flocka’s campaign strongly stresses his fight for animal rights.
Flame, who’s real name is Juaquin James Malphurs, poses mostly unclothed, bearing his tattoos and jewelry, while arguing against skinning animals. Says PETA: “underneath all that bling is a heart of gold–Waka Flocka Flame is a huge animal lover and is giving a shout-out to all the helpless fuzzy animals who are killed for their fur.” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Last month, Waka opened up about what truly inspired his PETA move.
“I don’t want anybody to beat my dog, scare my dog or whip my dog,” he tells RumorFix exclusively, adding that he thought PETA was the perfect group to work with after spending sometime researching them. Our staff was the only media outlet allowed to shoot behind-the-scenes video of Waka’s photo shoot. The rapper, known for the hit song “No Hands,” stripped down naked for the PETA cameras, but our cameras were only allowed to capture the G-rated version of the shoot. Waka was wearing little more than his famous “Waka” gold necklace and other chains that were the target of a botched armed robbery attempt on February 16 in Charlotte, North Carolina. When asked what he thought about people wearing fur, he joked, “It’s nasty. We don’t do that! Ink not mink!” (RumorFix)
A few weeks ago, PETA spokesperson Megan Rondeau spoke to SOHH about celebrities going nude for animals.
“Celebrities and athletes don’t have to be vegetarian or vegan,” PETA spokesperson Megan Rondeau told SOHH when asked if Flocka had to give up eating meat to participate in their campaigns. “That’s not a problem at all. I think that people often find there might be one cause that they’re very compassionate about and we love to work with them on it. [Our naked celebrity PETA campaigns] kind of goes both ways. Sometimes an artist will say, ‘I want to do a naked ad.’ I’m not sure if in this specific case whether Waka said that, but a lot of times, yes, artists and athletes will say they want to do it naked and they’re so all about it because it gets so much press — I think people get really excited about it and want to get the message out which is not to support the fur industry. So I think we try to really work with the celebrity and we would never try to push somebody to get naked if that was something they didn’t feel comfortable doing.” (SOHH)
Check out a sneak peek of Waka Flocka Flame’s PETA campaign down below:
