Corrie’s Kate Ford Bares All For Bears!

If, like me, you are a massive Coronation Street fan you will have been thrilled when it was announced that the evil Tracy Barlow was set to return to cause more chaos for the residents of Weatherfield.  In real life, the actress Kate Ford really is the extreme opposite of Tracy – especially when it comes to animals. Kate first supported PETA back in 2005 when she starred in an anti-fur ad for us. Not long afterwards Kate left Corrie to pursue various other projects – including having a baby!

We shot Kate’s stunning bearskin ads at a studio in Shoreditch last month. Kate certainly isn’t the kind of celebrity who usually strips-off for photo shoots, but she felt so strongly about the cause that, as she said, “I would never have dreamed of posing nude, but when PETA showed me the footage of the bears being shot and skinned just for the sake of these ornamental guards caps I decided to be brave and show some of my skin in the hope that the MoD will let the bears keep theirs.”

The photographer was the wonderful Karl Grant, who has shot numerous PETA ad campaigns over the years including Natalie Imbruglia, Kelly Osbourne, and Kate’s last PETA ad. Ever since I started to work on celebrity campaigns, Karl’s help and advice have been invaluable – not to mention the fact that he is such an amazing supporter of our campaigns that he even donates his time to PETA.

We had very little time to shoot the ads because of Kate’s hectic filming schedule. Kate was a real trooper – one of her ads was shot on a plywood board with just a sheet covering it – so it can’t have been comfortable – but Kate didn’t complain once. We only planned to produce one ad, but at the end of the shoot Karl said “Let’s try another idea quickly” and as a result we now have two amazing ads to help draw attention to the plight of bears.

Kate also took some time out to answer some questions on why she chose to support our bearskins campaign:

What would you say to the Ministry of Defence, which are dragging their heels and have so far refused to switch to faux fur?

I would ask the Ministry of Defence to reconsider their choice to use real bear fur for the Guards’ caps. The use of the real fur is uncalled for, as the fake fur is luxurious and looks the same. For this reason, there is no need for bears to go through unimaginable suffering. I ask them to reconsider and choose the compassionate option.

Did you enjoy doing the photo shoot?

The shoot for the posters was really good fun once I got over the fact I wasn’t wearing clothes!!!!!

Please tell people what they can do to help the bears.

To get involved and help the bears, please contact PETA, where you can send a letter to the MoD.

Do you have any companion animals?

We have two cats in our family, Milly and Charlie. They are both elderly now. Since the ad first appeared in the News of the World Kate’s web feature has already attracted  many visitors to the website and let’s just say that I wouldn’t like to be the person checking emails from our supporters at the MoD!