Social Marketing & Uh…

Minnesota Ads Target Sex Offenders

By PATRICK CONDON, Associated Press WriterThu Nov 3, 5:02 AM ET

A new ad campaign in Minnesota is aimed squarely at a demographic more often targeted by law enforcement than public relations executives: people at risk of sexually abusing a child.

Billboards, print ads, posters at bus stops and signs in public restrooms will go up next week with messages such as, “I’m not like those guys on the news who get caught being sexual with children. Am I?”

A confidential hot line and secure Web site will be offered to direct potential offenders to counseling.

The advocacy group Stop It Now! Minnesota believes its $35,000 ad campaign is the first of its kind in the country.

“If there are people out there looking for this kind of help and they can’t find it, that’s a tragedy,” said Yvonne Cournoyer, program director at the nonprofit, which addresses sexual abuse as a public health problem and focuses on prevention.

Working with a focus group including sex offenders, researchers learned potential abusers were less likely to respond to ads featuring happy, smiling people.

“These are, by and large, individuals who are miserable, depressed, out of control,” Cournoyer said.

One ad features a photo of a middle-aged man shielding his face from the camera. Another shows an obviously distressed mother shielding a young girl from her father.

The campaign will be focused in the Twin Cities and last a few months, Cournoyer said, but they hope to expand it.

Such “social marketing” is increasingly being used to prevent destructive behaviors, experts say.

“Rather than outsiders preaching to do the right thing and be noble and virtuous, you’re trying to understand your target audience and the mechanisms that are driving them,” said Alan Andreasen, a marketing professor at Georgetown University.

David Clohessy, the national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said he “would welcome any new, sincere initiative to make a difference.” But he remained skeptical.

“I think it may prove a little naive to think that a couple phone calls with a counselor would fundamentally change someone’s destructive sexual drive,” he said.
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Other future ads campaigns:
“Is that sheeps ass supposed to look as hot as it does?”

(for sheep fuckers)
“There is just something about body bags that get me going. Is that wrong?”
(for necorphilaics)
“Mmmm… is loving the smell of glue wrong?”
(Glue sniffers)
“But he looked 11 in that robe. I’m not like father johnson am I?”
(for catholic priests)
“So what you are saying is snorting coke of a dead hooker’s ass is wrong?”
(for guys that like to snort coke of dead hookers)
“Blood is not a substitute for V-8.”
(for vampires)
Eh I am sure there are more potential ads that they could come out with… But I need to shower and go to work…