Can the Advertising Industry End Human Trafficking?

United Nations official Kiyo Akasaka took on some "mad men" this week in a way that didn't involve martinis, cigars, or fabulous vintage hats. But it did involve a call to action for the advertising industry. The U.N. is asking advertisers around the world to take a stand against violence against women by using their powers of persuasion for social good instead of negative stereotyping.

U.N. officials are taking the advertising industry to task and asking them to help stamp out all forms of international violence against women, including human trafficking, by putting an end to destructive gender stereotypes in ads and lending their talents to prevention and awareness campaigns. Domestic violence, sexual assault, and sex trafficking are horrifically common around the world, in every country and every media market. The UN says that advertisers have some role to play in that epidemic, and they need to begin cleaning up their dirty work.

Around the world, ads for products from bleach to beer have engaged in stereotyping women, often in negative or inferior ways. Studies have shown that this sort of negative stereotyping exacerbates gender discrimination. Portraying women as sexual objects have been shown to be especially harmful for women and linked to international violence against women. And ads which depict women as sex objects haven't be limited to late night T.V. or adult magazines. They show up on billboards, in popular magazines and newspapers, and all over day and evening television.

The impetus for the U.N.'s pressure on the advertising industry comes from their showcase of efforts around the recent climate change summit in Copenhagen, where the industry demonstrated just how powerful their resources and experience could be for promoting social change. What better way to create headway in reducing harmful gender stereotyping than to get one of the biggest parts of the problem on board with the solution?

The advertising industry really does have the power to make a dent in global human trafficking. They can both reduce the sexual objectification of women in advertising and lend their resources and skills to advertising human trafficking prevention and awareness. And if the men (and women) of the advertising industry were to really get mad about human trafficking and international violence against women, we could together make a difference.

Photo credit: daveness_98