Tell Samsonite you STILL don’t want their bloody luggage …

PHOTO | LACS

Previous: Samsonite, capitalizing on blood and suffering

From: League Against Cruel Sports

Luggage company Samsonite has been widely criticised by the League for glorifying bullfighting in an advert to sell a four-wheeled suitcase.

The advert which stars matador Christian Aparicio is apparently supposed to remind us of the mad rush experienced at airports whilst promoting the ease of movement of the case. Unfortunately what Samsonite has failed to realise is that the overwhelming majority of people find bullfighting abhorrent and find the glorification of this barbaric and archaic ‘tradition’ to be in very bad taste.

The depiction of the bullfight in the advert would have us believe that bullfighting is dramatic and graceful, with the scene shot in a dreamlike format. What is not made clear is that bullfighting is not only brutal but completely unnecessary, involving the matador tormenting, goading, stabbing, and eventually killing the bull in what is indisputably an extremely stressful and cruel act of brutality.

The League decided to send Samsonite a message that their customers didn’t want them to glorify bullfighting by delivering a bloody suitcase to their office in London. Watch the video below and then let Samsonite know how you feel about them promoting bullfighting in their advert.

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MESSAGE TEXT

Dear Mr Parker,

I am extremely disappointed that your company has not listened to its customers and is refusing to pull the controversial advert in which a simulated bullfight is used to sell one of its products.

Bullfighting is illegal in the UK and in many other countries across Europe, and opinion polling carried out on behalf of the League Against Cruel Sports indicates that 89% of British people would not visit a bullfight. So why is it that Samsonite do not wish to disassociate themselves from this grotesque spectacle of animal cruelty in the same way that British Airways, Ryanair and Eurostar have done so?

During a bullfight, the bull is attacked with lances and harpoons by men on foot and on horseback. The matador forces the confused and exhausted animal to make a few charges and eventually attempts to kill it with a sword. If not killed, the animal is stabbed repeatedly until paralysed. When the bull finally collapses, the spinal cord is cut, but the animal may still be conscious as its ears and tail are cut off and kept as a trophy.

I have heard that you say the use of the bull was a ‘celebration of form and motion’. I think you can see that that is ludicrous. You may as well suggest that hanging is a celebration of rope and gravity.

I am calling on you to distance your company from this horrific, outdated and cruel ‘sport’.

Yours sincerely,

Related:

• Please take action for Bulls, sign and send petition against bullfighting in European Capital of Culture
• Help to End the Suffering of Bulls in Nimes
• Please help prevent introduction of bullfighting to the United Arab Emirates!

samsonite it is time for you to take
the bull by the horns
and remove that element of
the commercial
we all regard
with great scorn
bullfighting is not
something to be glamorized
it is a vile blood sport
which must not be trivialized

Karen Lyons Kalmenson