61: street art for sex workers

Been thinking less about "good ads" lately and more about (1) effective forms of communication and (2) effective ways of asserting your brand. The first, I'd like to touch on today.

These "ads"/street pieces for AMMAR, Argentina's association for sex workers, have been making the rounds on Tumblr for several weeks now. The thought behind it: "86% of sex workers are mothers. We need a law to regulate our work."

I like this particularly because it doesn't feel like an advertisement. It feels (and looks) like street art, which has been historically and traditionally – though that's another topic altogether – used to promote non-corporate interests. In other words, the interests of the people.

It's attention-grabbing and it's clever and it's honest. These pieces make you think about a controversial issue in a new way. It forces you to acknowledge that, like you, sex workers have families that they need to support and that, like you, sex workers deserve basic human rights.

AMMAR's goal is for sex work to be regulated by law, so that sex workers can be safe and protected from things like police brutality, sex trafficking, and other forms of violence. I don't care whether or not you agree that government should decriminalize sex work. I do hope, however, that you can recognize that strand of humanity that must necessarily connect us all, regardless of our choice of work. I am all for meaningful creative endeavors that play on empathy and compassion for people, and I think Ogilvy & Mather (Bs As) did a really great job here.

(via catsandgraffitis and Ads of the World)