PETA has publicly called out Lizzo for her new partnership with Chili’s, which finds the star promoting the restaurant chain’s baby back ribs despite previously being vegan.
Sharing a video that stitches together Lizzo’s new commercial for Chili’s with graphic footage of pigs suffering from abuse and mistreatment by handlers in the meat industry, PETA wrote Wednesday on Instagram, “PIGS WANT THEIR RIBS BACK.”
“It’s about damn time you found a conscience, @lizzobeeating,” the animal rights nonprofit continued in the caption. “The truth hurts, right? Here’s the truth behind your @chilis jingle: using the flesh and bones of an animal who was violently killed as an ‘instrument’ is beyond grotesque. What happened to you?”
Billboard has reached out to Lizzo’s rep for comment.
The severe message comes shortly after the singer’s Chili’s campaign launched, featuring Lizzo performing an updated version of the “Baby Back Ribs” jingle alongside a giant rib prop while playing a rib flute. In an interview with Billboard about the partnership, the Grammy winner — who was vegan for a few years before announcing in 2024 that she’d begun eating meat again — said, “I think that I’m very sensitive about the way I deliver personal news to the world.”
“When I announced that I was no longer vegan, and that I was consuming animal protein, I was so nervous that I would hurt people’s feelings or let people down,” she continued at the time. “But it was important for me to say that back then, because of things like this now, where, you know, it would have been super jarring for me to be a vegan in 2021, and then 2026, I’m eating a big old rib and playing a rib flute. So what I said back then to make sure that I cleared the air, and that any decisions I make now, you know where I’m coming from.”
Noting that she’d be a food influencer if she weren’t a musician, Lizzo also explained that the Chili’s team-up shows off her “fun, love-to-eat foodie side” rather than her “health advocacy side.”
The Grammy winner is currently gearing up to release her new album, Bitch, on June 5. And despite the backlash from PETA, Lizzo is having fun with her baby back ribs era, posting a TikTok of herself showing off a plate of the Chili’s dish on Thursday (May 28).
See the video below.
