Two months ago, the Washington Post announced they would no longer advertise for massage parlors and related services that are often fronts for brothels containing sex trafficking victims. The decision came after thousands of Change.org members and the anti-trafficking community spent two years pressing them for action. Now, inspired by that success, a small group of New Jerseyans have launched a campaign taking on similar ads in a local paper. And they're proving the fight against trafficking is local, as well as national.
Andrew Aylett and the other founding members of the group End Slavery Today are passionate about ending human trafficking. So when they heard the Washington Post had joined other prestigious newspapers like The Boston Globe and L.A. Times in rejecting commercial sex ads, they wondered if their local newspaper, the Asbury Park Press (APP), had also gotten on board. The APP is a popular local paper in Monmouth and Ocean Counties in Central New Jersey, just south of Manhattan. Sure enough, it turned out the APP was full of the sorts of ads the WaPo just rejected. After a little research, Aylett determined the APP was the biggest area advertiser of those services most likely to contain trafficked individuals.
So the group started a campaign asking the Asbury Park Press to stop running massage parlor and escort service ads. They created a paper petition and an electronic one on Change.org. They've also begun campaigns of picketing, letter writing, directly contacting the APP's other advertisers to ask them to stop buying ads, and of course, talking to the APP itself. Additionally, the group has been collecting coverage of the campaign by APP competitors — stories which oddly enough, the APP has seemed reluctant to jump on.
So far the APP's response to this campaign has been pretty clear: no. They've given a number of excuses, including the old stand-by that they don't "censor" their advertisers. However, when the group submitted an advertisement saying that the Asbury Park Press supports prostitution, the paper refused to print it. So apparently the prohibition against censoring ads is a pretty loose one. In a letter to Aylett, the APP also claimed they don't believe his research and that banning massage parlor ads because of rampant human trafficking in the industry would be akin to banning financial services ads because Bernie Madoff was corrupt.
To be clear — the target of this campaign is not legitimate massage therapy practices. End Slavery Today is focused on the massage parlors and escort services that are thin veneers for brothels. And trafficking in these brothels isn't a 100 year storm like Bernie Madoff — it's a common occurrence. When mainstream newspapers like the Asbury Park Press advertise for these brothels, it provides potential buyers a safe, normal place to shop for sex with trafficked women. It gives them the same veneer of legitimacy it gives the businesses, so they never have to wonder if the woman (or young girl) they have just rented for the hour is a willing participant or a slave. The APP's decision to stop running such ads would reduce local demand for those services and thus reduce the demand for trafficked women.
You can ask the Asbury Park Press to join leading and respected newspapers across the country and stop running ads for massage parlors and escort services. Or, write to your local paper and ask them, if they still run similar ads, to stop. And if you are running a campaign asking a local paper to reject human trafficking ads, let us know about it at humantraffickingtips@change.org.
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Photo credit: garryknight
Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic
New Jerseyans Take on Massage Parlor Ads in Asbury Park Press | End Human Trafficking | Change.org
