ad review

My ad review is a print ad for Stepping Stone, a Canadian charity that offers support to sex workers. The theme behind the campaign is that sex workers are people too. They are mothers, daughters, sons. I chose this particular ad as I feel it had the strongest message of the campaign. The insight of this particular ad is that sex work is still work, and sex workers have families to look after.

There is no shame in providing for your family. The visual is just a girl's face, but the copy is what gets the message across. The headline reads "I'm glad my prostitute made me finish school", and the payoff line is "sex workers are mothers too." This really hits home that all sex workers have a life beyond their jobs. They should not be defined by their line of work, and although they do not have the most credible jobs, they should be offered the same respect as a person in any other line of work.

I enjoy the ads because they are hard-hitting and thought provoking and cast sex workers in a different light. Sex workers are hardly ever in our minds, and almost never is a good light. We make jokes about them, feel sorry for them, but never think about their lives outside of turning tricks. The copy in this ad makes us really think about sex workers, but not about the sex.