"Messin' around with young girls"

These posters apparently stem from a PSA print campaign by SERVE, a non-profit ad marketing agency to help fight Milwaukee's statutory rape problem. The campaign NEVER TOOK OFF, because of objections to the images.

But for the intended audience, pedophiles, and even young impressionable girls, this was a messages that probably would have resonated louder, because of the images. Images of supposedly pre-pubescent well developed girls are featured in the campaign's posters.

I don't know any girls who look like this at that age, but to men and women who prey on them, this may be how they see them. The breasts appear fake, but they could have done the poster without the overdevelopment features of the breast and sexualization to reach the ad's intended audience.

Poster captions: "Just because she has the body, doesn't mean she has the brain" and "If you see a child as anything more, it's wrong," and the fine print at the bottom reads "If you're over 18 and having sex with an underage girl it's statutory rape."

This isn't just a Milkwaukee, Wisconsin problem. It's a global problem.

Here is a Milwaukee (which could be anytown USA) based video called "Statutory Rape/Teen Pregnancy Campaign Focus Group"

Here is the YouTube video description: "This statutory rape prevention campaign was one of many ads produced to address Milwaukee's teen pregnancy crisis. A recent study found that Milwaukee has the 7th highest rate of birth to teens in the country.

In Wisconsin, statutory rape is a huge part of the teen pregnancy crisis. A recent study found that 71% of babies born to teen girls are fathered by adult males over 20 years old. In 20% of the cases, the fathers are at least six year older than the mothers. Go to www.onemilwaukee.org to find out more.

The ads were tested in several focus groups of inner city teens and young adults ages 15-25 (over half of the participants were teens moms, 43% of whom personally experienced statutory rape). The campaign was universally embraced by our target audience for its ability to attract attention and spur in-depth discussion about the pervasive problem of statutory rape. We did recognize, however, that people in the business, political and non-profit communities felt uncomfortable with these specific images. Out of respect for their opinions, this campaign will not run." Serve is the non-profit advertising agency associated with this video and ad campaign.

I am wondering, if statutory rape is such a problem, at least where this ad was targeted, would you find these advertisement images objectionable, in a region where in record numbers, young girls are already having sex and getting pregnant by older boys and men?

Reference:

OneMilwaukee.org/

Article: Teen birth rate hurts economy