Top 10 Reasons Not To Support The 'Real Men Don't Buy Girls' Campaign

There is a top 10 list for creating an ad or PSA campaign that includes general things that are needed for the its success. For example -  a broad scope, do your homework, and lean towards being conservative to avoid controversy. Also, celebrity spokespersons may not always work out  because they are often remembered versus the message.  Then there's always the ethical and moral negatives that can pop up. Finally, don't be too scary, gross, or in the case of the 'Real Men Don't Buy Girls' campaign - creepy, funny and weird. 

Here's the top 10 reasons not to support the 'Real Men Don't Buy Girls' campaign and why it will not be effective:

1. The 'Real Men Don't Buy Girls' campaign name is problematic because it is gender and age specific; therefore the entire campaign is extremely limited in scope and its effectiveness.

2. The DNA foundation website indicates that one of its primary goals is to change the cultural stereotypes that facilitate this horrific problem. Yet, by using the term “real men” as part of the campaign slogan, the old attitudes and beliefs of what defines a man are being emphasized. This is not only harmful to women and girls, but to men and boys too.

3. The  foundation website indicates its primary goal or mission is 'eliminating child sex slavery and human trafficking', but the ads do not inform the viewer of the definition of either term or ways to learn more about the issues.

4. The campaign doesn’t address the fact that boys are being abused, raped, exploited and trafficked every day, globally and in the U.S.

5. Sean Penn may be able to use an iron, but he doesn’t bother saying that he has an issue with his friend Charlie Sheen’s record of abusing women. In March, Sean publicly came to Sheen’s defense, and even offered to take his friend to Haiti.

6. Penn isn’t the only ad man that allowed Sheen to slide on his abuse of women. Piers Morgan’s recent interview of Sheen was viewed by 1.3 million viewers, and during the interview Morgan had no problem joking around with Sheen. When he asked him if he had ever hit a woman, he seemed okay with Sheen’s answer that no, women should be “hugged and caressed”.
   

7. Eva Longoria and Jessica Biel show up at the end of the ads seductively asking, “Are you are a real man?”.   

        That's the creepy and weird part of the ad.

8. The campaign is missing important root cause information, such as poverty, gender inequity, conflict, culture and corruption.

9. The campaign is missing a way to call in tips or ask questions. That can be done at the National Human Trafficking Hotline 1-888-3737-888 and more information can be found at polarisproject.org.

10. The campaign is missing a call-to-action message.

I could easily keep going with more examples of womanizing, misogynistic ad men, but I'll stop with the two examples of spokespersons who by ignoring the abuse of women, support it.

The above "top 10 list" isn't meant to bash Demi and Ashton or their efforts to raise awareness to end child exploitation.  This list is meant to identify the issues that make it ineffective as a prevention and diversion campaign. When the focus is kept entirely on the victim and survivor, this is always possible.