campaign
(http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/mpls/messages/topic/2HnYJRPb6P9k4suV3RKUES)
The ad features a young woman we are to read as a sex worker, with the
accompanying text "Fast, Cheap, and Satisfaction Guaranteed." When I called USI
this morning they assured me that they had done some test marketing and
everybody loved it, but I pointed out that the 100,000 American girls sexually
trafficked in the US with an initial recruitment age of 11-14 might not guffaw
quite as loudly as the focus group did.
12 of these billboards appear around Minneapolis, including one in my
neighborhood at 38th and Cedar.
After speaking with USI, I followed up with CM Schiff's office and he could not
have acted with more urgency to my appeal: within a few hours I received word
that the billboards are coming down. As of TOMORROW.
I want to thank Gary Schiff and his staff, Elizabeth Glidden and other members
of the Minneapolis City Council who got USI to drop this damaging ad campaign
that undermines years of work that community activists and elected officials
have done to reduce human trafficking.
Stacey Burns
Corcoran, 9-6