PETA's take on the masculinity debate is a VIDEO of men with vegetables for private parts

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has injected itself into the conversation on so-called toxic masculinity, following in Gillette's footsteps with its own bizarre male-themed ad reimagining genitalia as giant veggies.

The controversy-courting animal rights group seems to be equating veganism with manliness, but you'd be forgiven for missing that message in the video. The clip shows creepy-looking, sweaty men waggling and twirling comically large, phallic vegetables attached to their crotches, intercut with close-ups of those same vegetables flanked by veggie "testicles."

"Increase your sexual stamina. Go vegan," reads the ad's only text. Given all the bandwidth being spent on discussion of Gillette's controversial opus, one can't blame PETA for wanting to climb on the social-justice bandwagon, and the ad certainly doesn't waste any time beating around the bush.

It's hard to tell how PETA wants us to feel about masculinity: the vegetable-membered men include a car wash attendant, a tennis player, a businessman, and an old man who tenderly touches his "squash" while leering at said businessman. Oh, and Michelangelo's David, who gets enhanced with an eggplant – long recognized as the emoji for male genitalia.

Perhaps anticipating such confusion, the group posted an article equating "traditional" masculinity with meat-eating – a capital crime in PETA's books. But not all is lost, since the guilty can "cure toxic masculinity by going vegan."

Twitter, barely recovered from the Gillette fiasco, wasn't having any of this veggie-diddling. The amateur fact-checkers got out their steak knives:

Even the vegans were turned off:

Advertising executives tried to debate the ad on its merits.

The omnivores seemed to agree PETA had self-owned:

Even fans of the Gillette ad made fun of them:

Others merely pointed out that that was perfectly good food they were rubbing all over their crotches.

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