MUMBAI: Oscar-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix aims to remind fans that "We Are All Animals", in a new ad campaign for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India. The ad urges people to "live vegan" and help "end speciesism", which is the damaging belief that -- despite their extraordinary talents, abilities, and intelligence -- all other animal species are inferior to humans.

The ad comes in response to the criticism Phoenix faced over an earlier ad of Amul Butter. The dairy giants, normally known for their iconic ad campaigns, put out an ad showing butter being smeared onto Phoenix's likeness as celebration after his Oscar win, despite the star's vegan lifestyle.

PETA India had sent a letter to RS Sodhi, managing director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, urging Amul to switch to manufacturing plant-based milks.

PETA India's billboard featuring the Hollywood actor has been placed in Delhi, Bengaluru, and Mumbai.

"When we look at the world through another animal's eyes, we have to realise that inside we're all the same - and so we all deserve to live free from suffering," said Phoenix, who has been vegan since he was three.

Recently, Phoenix wore a vegan suit in a campaign against wool for PETA US that proclaimed: "Cruelty Doesn't Suit Me."

Veganism is the practice of not consuming any animal products, particularly in diet, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals.