Despite Her Iconic ASPCA Ad, Sarah McLachlan Insists She’s Nothing Like Sylvia Plath

"They assume I'm going to be like Sylvia Plath and reading poetry and drinking wine at midnight with candles and all dark and moody," McLachlan said of her public persona following the heart-wrenching ad.

By Audra Heinrichs  |  September 18, 2025 | 10:14am
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Despite Her Iconic ASPCA Ad, Sarah McLachlan Insists She’s Nothing Like Sylvia Plath

On Sunday, Lilith Fair: Building A Mystery, a documentary chronicling the origin story of the all-female festival founded by three-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan, will premiere on Hulu and Disney+. Naturally, McLachlan has spent the week promoting the film, as well as her first studio album in nearly a decade, Better Broken. In a series of interviews, McLachlan has gotten candid on everything—from nearly losing her voice to using therapy to better understand her eldest daughter. More importantly, though, she also let it rip on what that infamous 2007 ASPCA commercial has done for her public persona.

In a new interview with People, McLachlan said that the gut-punch of an advertisement set to her 1997 hit “Angel,” has—in essence—made people assume she’s an emo singer-songwriter cliché.

“I think people have an idea of who I was,” McLachlan said. “Regardless of my playful, happy nature, what was portrayed was somber album covers and dark moody music.”

She added: “They assume I’m going to be like Sylvia Plath and reading poetry and drinking wine at midnight with candles and all dark and moody.” Reading poetry and drinking wine at midnight with candles? Dark and moody? Don’t threaten me with a good time. By contrast, McLachlan insists, she’s “so happy and light.”

Frankly, if I met McLachlan and she were, in fact, like Plath, I wouldn’t be at all disappointed. And by the way, you mean to tell me the woman who wrote “Possession” and “Sad Clown” is “so happy and light”??? I really must protest.

In June, McLachlan told Rolling Stone how the commercial came to be.

“A friend of mine was on the [ASPCA] board and said, ‘Hey, do you want to do this commercial? We’ve never done this before with a celebrity or someone known.’ I love animals, and we thought it might be a cool thing to do, so I did it,” she recalled. According to McLachlan, the commercial raised roughly $30 million in less than two years when it first began airing. She, however, still finds it too difficult to watch.

“I couldn’t watch it. It was just like, ‘Oh, God is awful,'” she said. “But it worked like a hot damn.”

An understatement, to be sure!

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  • Why yes, I am clocking how kind the royal family—you, especially Princess Kate—was to our fascist president and his wife, thank you for asking. [Page Six]
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  • Sabrina Carpenter will soon star in a Muppets special. [Variety]
  • Jude Law knows nothing about a The Holiday sequel; therefore, neither do I. [Entertainment Weekly]
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