Award-Winning Campaign To Eliminate Prostitution Takes A Dark Approach

Riccardo Fregoso, executive creative director of McCann Paris, discusses the firm's Clio Award-winning ad called "The Girls of Paradise," which draws potential johns in for a rude surprise.

The campaign starts with a website that looks like many your could find on the Internet, a page that promised a gallery of potential escorts for one to choose from. But it's a fake: As soon as the visitor clicks through enough times, the website tells the visitor about the fate of the woman he has chosen — death, usually by violence.

The campaign is intended to demonstrate, in a very visceral way, that johns are complicit in the violence enacted upon women in the sex trade. You can view the ad campaign here (warning: there are some graphic images).

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