VISITORS to Edinburgh’s world-famous Fringe festival will see more than a show or two after a huge billboard of Alan Cumming in the buff was put up in the city.
The nude photo of the Scottish star has been put up by animal rights campaign group Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).
It features Cumming reclining in the nude, with nothing but a romaine lettuce to cover his manhood.
The billboard, which can be found at Croall Place at the top of Leith Walk, forms part of a new Peta campaign urging people to try veganism.
Cumming is a vegan himself, ditching animal products from his diet entirely in 2012.
In a video to accompany the campaign, the Hollywood star said he had been inspired to make the change by former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson.
“I thought if Mike Tyson can do it, surely I can,” Cumming said.
The billboard features the Scots star urging people to join him in dropping animal-derived foods. “I’m the vegan option,” the slogan reads.
Peta, whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”, said that each person who goes vegan saves nearly 200 animals every year, reduces their own risk of suffering from heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer, and shrinks their carbon footprint.
The campaign group is also offering people a free “vegan starter kit”, which includes “recipes, tips on making the switch and much more”.
Cumming has previously appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe handing out free vegan ice cream in an effort to promote the lifestyle to festival-goers.
He has also spoken out against a proposed caviar farm in Scotland in a letter to Argyll and Bute Council in 2018, and called for Glasgow’s Cop26 to be a vegan event.
His latest campaign with Peta, which has seen him strip down for a photoshoot at a vegan tapas restaurant in New York, courted controversy when it was first unveiled.
One person questioned at the time: “And being naked helps vegans? If anyone can elaborate how roaming around naked helps veganism?”
But others were supportive of the campaign and Cumming’s involvement.
“Alan Cumming is the vegan KING,” one supporter said, while another added: “Love this. TYSM [thank you so much] for being vegan – we love to have you on our team.”
