Sex-Trafficking is wrong, m’key?

Catch the ad on RTÉ tonight warning you that soliciting sex from trafficked prostitutes was wrong? First time for a telly ad, I’m sure. Caught it at around 10:15 tonight on RTÉ2.

If you missed it, here’s the drift. Eastern European girl sees advert for waitress job with mucho earning promises. Arrives in Ireland. Meets dodgy dude, that brings her to an deadend house and with a colleague forces her into a room. Cue a little later where our girl is in slutty clothes with companion meeting a pair of Irish lads in a dingy living room. Cut to the fellas celebrating with pints in a pub afterwards.

How many ads against prostitution people trafficking for the purposes of prostitution have you seen on RTÉ? This is the first I’ve seen. Yes, it’s after the watershed, but how effective is an ad like this?  If guys want to solicit sexual services from young possibly-trafficked girls, I’m probably thinking they don’t care that the girls may have come to Ireland under false pretenses, right? Paying for sex probably means that the buyer has a blurry understanding of right and wrong, so now they are going to emote just because Mr Joe Storyteller in an ad tells them to? Wrong, wrong, wrong. What the hell?

If the ad makers really wanted to show the damage that international gangs are having to society, how about a snappier look at the damage they do to entire communities – a 360° look. A look at how gangs invades every town and village in drugs, prostitution, gang wars, pirated content, petty crimes and murder.

Anyone got this baby recorded?

Fixing to clear up inconsistencies, correctly called by Sabrina!

November 23rd, 2008 at 10:46 pm • Filed in Life



Comments

5 Comments to “Sex-Trafficking is wrong, m’key?”

  1. Robin B Says:
    November 24th, 2008 at 12:18 pm

    I was delighted to see the ad. It’s a firm message that this is wrong. I’m not sure people agree with it being wrong yet.

    A journalist mate has some shocking stats on this stuff that he’s trying to get published.



  2. Sabrina Dent Says:
    November 24th, 2008 at 4:02 pm

    This is not an anti-prostitution advert; it’s an anti sex-trafficking advert. That is the point of the woman being Eastern European. Sex work and sex trafficking are not the same thing. Those of us who think prostitution should be legalised ARE NOT saying that it is also okay to smuggle women into the country, hold them against their will, extort money from them and force them to perform sex acts.



  3. Alexia Says:
    November 24th, 2008 at 4:27 pm

    My bad on blurring the lines, Sabrina. But do you believe that an advert will change customers’ attitudes on paying for sex with women that have been trafficked?



  4. Sabrina Dent Says:
    November 24th, 2008 at 4:37 pm

    Sorry, that was a bit snippy. I edited for brevity and apparently took all the not-snippy bits out. Glad we’re on the same page there.

    To answer your question: No, I don’t think it will have an appreciable impact on customers who know they are having sex with a trafficked woman. I do think that it will make a handful of punters a bit more aware that this is a problem that exists, and I do firmly believe that for the vast majority of men who engage professional services, it DOES make a difference. We’re talking about perfectly ordinary people here – accountants, bin men, bus drivers – and they’re not looking to hurt – or, as odd as it may sound – to exploit anyone.



  5. Gray Wright Says:
    November 25th, 2008 at 9:53 am

    Aside from the point here it’s one of my huge bugbears the amount of money spent on the bleeding obvious – government ads that in one form or another tell us something we already know. Fruit is good for you, you should stand in when the bus is pulling up to the kerb, sex trafficking is bad, you know the sort of thing.

    I don’t think an ad like this (and I am writing having not seen it) will make a blind bit of difference to anyone involved in this trade from either side.

    Awareness among the general public, possibly but what real change is that going to make?

    Sorry to be so downbeat and cranky.



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