CURRENT ISSUE. STATUTORY RAPE

JUST BECAUSE SHE HAS THE BODY, DOESN’T MEAN SHE HAS THE BRAINS

WHEN YOU LOOK AT A YOUNG GIRL AS SOMETHING MORE, YOU NEED HELP

The purpose of this ad is to inform people about having sex with girls who may look older than 18, but are in fact not legal. The ad is going far with this picture, because by her face she looks like she’s ten, maybe, but then her body looks about 15 years older than that. On a regular basis, most people do not look like that. This is an extreme example of what a girl would look like.

The audience for this ad is most likely towards people who are over 18 and are doing this to girls. Statutory Rape is increasingly a concern of today’s economy and many people get away with it. Guys sometimes don’t even ask they just assume that the girl is legal.

There is some emotional appeal to this, just because any woman that sees this, and has had someone rape them, can sympathize with it, especially if the guy got away with it. There aren’t really any facts in this ad, so it doesn’t really have any logical appeal to it. It does have ethical appeal though. The ad is very powerful and the attitude of the writer wants to let everyone know how serious people get ages wrong and for wrong reasons. The writer makes this statement with an extreme view on the current issue.

The company Copyranter created this ad, but Laurie Toby Edison, a famous photographer blogs about it. http://www.laurietobyedison.com/discuss/?p=494
This ad was for a nonprofit company against statutory rape (as probably anyone could tell).
“The net result, of course, since a picture is and always has been worth a thousand words, is to sexualize these teenagers, and underscore their attractiveness and availability while claiming otherwise.
This, we believe, is a nonprofit organization and an ad agency that have been so seduced by the dark side of sexualization of young girls that they may not even realize they are sending a message opposite to the one they intend” (Edison).

All the people that have commented on the blog really hate the ad. I agree with them, it is very offensive and creepy. I think it could possibly hit people hard though, because it makes such a strong statement. Yea it’s horrible, but in reality it’s supposed to be horrible. The company is trying to make heads turn when people see it and hopefully realize how dangerous it is. It’s not about children getting recognized, it’s about how girls as young as maybe 14 go out and look a lot older and guys take advantage of that because they think they are legal but they actually are not.

The only main fact in this advertisement is the fact that if you are older than 18 and have sex with a person (in this case a young woman or girl) that is under that age, then you are committing a crime known as statutory rape.

This is a social statement for the most part. It is not historical or cultural. It doesn’t have to do with race, religion, or any type of ethnicity. The people that get the most out of this ad are people who have an opinion on this issue. If you are on the side of “this ad is really great and educates people about this issue” or on the opposite side saying, “this ad is horrible and shouldn’t be publicized” then this ad is for you. If you have feelings towards this ad, that is exactly what the company wanted to get. I don’t think they wanted bad feedback, but this issue is too important to not be publicized about.

So what do you think about the ad? Do you think this ad is too aggressive? Do you think it’s just right? What kinds of problems do you see this ad getting, if it hit a really well known newspaper or news anchor that a lot of people read/watch?