Thursday, July 21, 2011

Ads Nauseam: Behind bars

A series of U.S. Department of Homeland Security ads aimed at preventing human trafficking will soon be airing domestically according to a CNN.com article. Viewers in parts of the U.S. will soon be able to see the same ads for the "Don't Be Fooled" campaign that have already aired in Central America and Mexico.

"We want to involve the American public in ending this abomination," said David Aguilar, deputy administrator of Customs and Border Protection, regarding human trafficking. Hence, the ads will air in states that are key immigrant destinations (e.g. Florida, Georgia, and Washington) where the issue of trafficking may not be as well known in comparison to border states.

Will the ads be as memorable as some federally-funded counternarcotics commercials like in the "This is Your Brain on Drugs" series of the 1990s? Or will the DHS series be ineffective like federally-funded anti-drug commercials (according to a 2006 Government Accountability Office report)? Check it out for yourself:

Online Sources - CNN, Wikipedia, AdAge.com
Video Source - YouTube

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