PETA has released its 2025 Christmas advert – and it’s the most gruesome one yet.
The two–minute clip, shown exclusively to the Daily Mail, shows a typical family seated around a festive table.
Platters of food are passed around and drinks are poured while guests make general chit–chat about traffic and presents.
But as they tuck into turkey and ham, a torrent of blood splatters over their faces – turning the feast into a horrifying nightmare.
The clip ends with a bloodsoaked toast to the festive season, with the message: ‘This Christmas, over 180 million animals will be slaughtered in the UK. Happy Christmassacre.’
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is urging Brits to spare animals this Christmas ‘and beyond’ by going vegan.
The chilling advert will run in cinemas nationwide throughout December.
So, is it enough to put you off your turkey?
The clip shows a family enjoying a Christmas meal, tucking into food and making conversation, before it becomes a bloodsoaked affair
The feast turns into a horrifying nightmare as guests, including children, are covered in blood while they celebrate the festive season
‘Behind every trussed–up turkey, holiday ham or beef Wellington was an individual who felt pain and fear and didn’t want to die,’ PETA’s Vice President of Programmes, Elisa Allen, said.
‘PETA urges everyone to choose compassion over carnage this Christmas by tucking into a savoury vegan roast.’
The non–profit organisation argues that pigs are soothed by music, cows have best friends and turkeys are doting parents.
‘But in the meat industry, the animals are raised in filthy, crowded conditions, trucked to slaughterhouses through all weather extremes, and violently killed’, it said.
‘In addition to sparing animals a lifetime of misery and an agonising death, each person who goes vegan also dramatically shrinks their food–related carbon footprint and slashes their risk of developing cancer, heart disease, and other ailments.’
Although it looks like real meat, all food used in the video – which was directed by David Shane – was vegan, PETA says.
Its website features festive meat–free alternatives including a ‘no gammon’ joint and a chestnut and thyme plant–based turkey.
The clip marks PETA’s fourth Christmas advert. Last year’s featured a young girl who struck up a friendship with a cow named Kiwi.
Last year’s advertisement shows a girl visiting her new friend on several occasions and playing the trumpet, before it takes a sinister twist
The child is filmed walking around the fields while practising playing the trumpet, when she leans over the gate and connects with a curious cow, who moos back to the song.
But when Christmas rolls around, the child – who has decorated her hair and instrument with tinsel – goes to the field with her mother, only to find that Kiwi has disappeared.
She continues to play the trumpet, hoping she will eventually see her pal.
But the next shot shows Kiwi being taken into the lorry by a whistling farmer, indicating she is about to be taken to the abattoir to be slaughtered for meat.
It ends with the door slamming shut on the truck, and the message: ‘Everyone deserves a Merry Christmas. Please leave animals off your plate.’
PETA’s first Christmas advert, released in 2022, is a heartwarming tale featuring a baby turkey called Toby.
It starts by showing an abattoir–bound lorry packed with the animals. In a nod to turkeys’ reputations as excellent mothers, Toby’s mother orchestrates his escape, pushing him out of the truck.
As the tiny bird is flung from the moving vehicle, he lands on the road, and watches his mother and the others as they are driven away to their deaths.
PETA’s first Christmas advert was released in 2022. In it, Toby the turkey escapes an abattoir and becomes a companion animal. Instead of being killed and eaten, he becomes part of the family
Then a car drives up and stops in front of Toby, and a woman picks him up, before taking him home.
The ad shows Toby becoming a beloved companion animal instead of being slaughtered and eaten.
At the end, a message comes up on the screen saying: ‘Peace on Earth begins at home – have a vegan Christmas.’
Estimates for the number of vegans in the UK vary, but recent research suggests there are around 2.5 million people who don’t eat any animal–based products.
This is the equivalent of 4.7 per cent of the population – a number which has skyrocketed in recent years.
SuperSoup, vegan cheese and crackers, and ‘super-spuds’: The Christmas feast of the future
- SuperSoup – supercharged to help support metabolic health over the festive period
- Pigs in blankets – pigs fed on seaweed to reduce antibiotic usage
- Vegan cheese and crackers – cheese made from peas
- Wine – AI used to ensure healthier vines and higher yields
- Super-spuds – potatoes genetically engineered to cook faster
- Alternative protein – turkey supplemented with health proteins
- Sprouts – greens more resilient to climate change
Christmas is a time characterized by family, food and looking to the future. But the traditional festive meal might soon start to look a bit different, according to experts
