TV ad: PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals): It’s The Toy That Toys With Life

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Top 6: March 26th 2025

“It’s the toy that toys with life!” A new commercial for 'My First Lab Animal,' PETA’s satirical take lampooning the cruelty of experiments on animals and the millions of taxpayers’ dollars wasted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on these experiments, debuts today on FOX News, TV Land, MTV, and Adult Swim. The commercial, complete with a cheerful jingle, follows a child as she discovers the complete 'My First Lab Animal' kit, performing procedures actually funded and conducted by the NIH on her stuffed toy mouse: injecting chemicals, delivering electric shocks, and dropping the mouse in an inescapable beaker of water. With the Day-Glo and plasticine glee of ‘90s toy commercials, the new ad should strike a chord with Millennial viewers, many of whom are now toy-shopping parents themselves - and its message against wasting tax dollars (the girl hands hush money to her concerned parents and a narrator notes, “paid for by the government…the NIH is not liable if your child becomes a psychopath”) should resonate with viewers who are cheering on efforts to cut government spending.