If animal rights activists judge the success of their publicity stunts by the amount of publicity they generate, this year's fur protests on the day after Thanksgiving were not exactly successful. In fact they bombed.

A Friends of Animals protester, reportedly the group's Pacific director named Ben White, scaled the front of Fendi's Fifth Avenue store in New York and hung a banner that read, "Peace to All Creatures. Please Don't Buy Fur."

Media coverage was down drastically. "We're not interested in covering that this year" was the response of several members of the media when contacted by the Fur Information Council of America (FICA) to offer the fur industry's positive message. The total number of instances of radio or television reports decreased almost by half from last year. A professional monitoring service hired by FICA picked up 90 reports across the United States, down from 172 last year. And the depth of coverage was far less; many tv and radio outlets who last year devoted minutes of air time to the event only gave it a few quick seconds this year.

Only one national news outlet (CNN) covered the animal rights demonstrations scattered throughout the country; last year three tv networks did. Hardly any newspapers devoted space to the protesters, with the exception of noting scattered arrests or photographing a colorful scene.

"This just shows that, not only are Americans turning their backs on animal rights, so is the media," said Stephanie Kenyon of FICA, who, along with Carol Wynne and Sandy Blye of FICA, telephoned reporters from FICA's New York office that day. "A recent study indicates that 96% of all Americans do not approve of the tactics used by animal activists," Kenyon told members of the media.

But apparently it wasn't necessary. They just weren't interested in the protesters. Fur Free Friday is old news.

Stunt Man

As usual, the busy streets of New York, Chicago and San Francisco were the targets of the largest demonstrations. In New York, a quickie parade organized by Friends of Animals proved to be of little interest to busy Fifth Avenue shoppers. The day probably would have gone even more unnoticed in the eyes of the press if it were not for a new stunt at Fendi.

This Friends of Animals banner hung on Fendi's wall for probably 20 minutes before police could have it (and the activist) removed. In the meantime, crowds of onlookers and police cars blocked the street, creating a traffic bottleneck on Fifth Avenue between 56 and 57 Streets, in Manhattan's prime shopping district.

With a crowd of cameramen and police surrounding him, Ben White of Friends of Animals (reportedly the group's Pacific director) scaled the front of the store to a flagpole near second-floor windows, where he dangled for a while and hung a sign that read, "Peace to All Creatures; Please Don't Buy Fur."

Shoppers busy enjoying holiday decorations were intrigued; the stunt had such a New York dramatic goofiness about it. "What is it?" asked people rubbernecking across the street. When told, most rolled their eyes, laughed or said, "Oh, brother. Those crazies."

Police were out in force. They tried to reach for White from a second floor window, in order to bring him in and get the sign down. One officer even got ahold of the banner and had a brief tug-of-war with the protester. Eventually White came back down and was bundled into a police car, along with a second activist. He was reportedly charged with reckless endangerment, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

Numbers Down

The parade organized by Friends of Animals got started much later than expected. The group supposedly planned to rally at Columbus Circle at 10 a.m. and start marching at 10:30, but hardly anybody had showed up by 11. This turnout was considerably less than numbers mustered in previous years. In the first few years after its launch in 1986, Fur Free Friday garnered about 1,600 marchers. Since then, its support has decreased steadily. Even last year, when PeTA (People for the ethical Treatment of Animals) joined with Friends of Animals for the event, it generated more support from animal activists.

Eventually about 300 people gathered behind their leader, Priscilla Feral, and a banner that Friends of Animals also uses for its bus ads this year. They marched down Fifth Avenue to 48th Street, then crossed over to Madison and returned to Columbus Circle for another rally.

They could boast of no celebrities. The next best thing was a shivering Lady Godiva, who wore a nude bodysuit in the chilly 40-degree weather. She was supposed to deliver a letter from romance-novel-cover boy Fabio, asking the Fendi sisters to stop designing fur. When the parade passed by Fendi, however, it was on the opposite side of the street.

White tussled with a crowd of police, who weren't amused by his antics and had to force him down off the flagpole in order to arrest him. He was taken into custody, reportedly on charges of reckless endangerment, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

Despite a mob of at least 30 members of the media -- mostly photographers -- present to record the day for posterity, it didn't end up getting a lot of air time or newspaper inches, even locally. It was barely mentioned in quick visual clips of two or three seconds in length on a few tv stations. Most of them didn't even send reporters, just cameramen. The local Fox news went into the most detail, but balanced it by quoting FICA information. Though three FICA representatives were in New York at the time, none appeared in any of the clips. The New York Times carried a photograph in its Metro section, and the Daily News featured a story.

Extreme? You Bet!

A new group helped breathe life back into the nearly dead protest day by stepping in and coordinating across the country a series of more militant attacks on stores that sell fur. The Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT), which came to the fur industry's attention mere months ago with its campaign against Federated Department Stores Inc., threatened in advance to disrupt fur sales on the busiest shopping day of the year. Afterward CAFT crowed that 26 activists (mostly young people) were arrested Nov. 24 in "disruptions" in a dozen cities from San Francisco to Syracuse.

CAFT and West Coast organizer Cres Vellucci, of The National Activist Network, said nine arrests were made in San Francisco, two in Seattle, eight in Syracuse, three in Minneapolis, three in Indiana and one in Memphis. "Other disruptions and store blockades took place in Albany, Canton, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Buffalo."

San Francisco news reports said 12 arrests were made that day at Macy's. (See sidebar for more on CAFT.)