The Truth Isn’t Sexy – Concept for World Cup 2010

Earlier this year we were in South Africa and were shocked by the massive figures given by the US State Dept and local immigration authorities esimating the illegal trafficking into South Africa for the World Cup. Human-trafficking can seem a fairly benine term, but when we realised this is modern day slavery involving real people, we began to ask God for his compassion for these victims and researched the issue. .

We only spent 3 months in South Africa, we realised that we would not be the sole solution to this massive issue, but we had a desire to play some part in seeing this evil practice ended. Our friends who I worked on this for at JusticeACTS told us stories of how they hear of missing girls from local schools, this wasn’t just another advocacy campaign, modern day slavery involves real people, in real places, and I wanted what ever we did as a project to convey that somehow.

When I started this project I though alot about how the influx of trafficked persons into South Africa for the fifa world cup was caused by an expected influx ‘custom’ for prostitution. So we decided on a campaign that we could print beer mats/coasters posing as adverts for prostitution, with the flip side of the coaster describing a short narrative which includes the current stats for prostitution and trafficking in South Africa.

I began researching advertising for prostitution which happens in the local newspapers in Cape Town, South Africa, and took note of the common words used to draw the attention of the potential customers and incorporated them into the design.

The desire for the back of the coaster was to engage the reader with the personal reality for someone who has been trafficked, giving them the catchy phrase of the campaign (the truth isn’t sexy) and ways to report anything they have seen and connect with the issue through a campaign website.

This beer mat has now been printed and distributed in the FIFA Fan fest zones in every stadium city in South Africa for the World Cup, 10’s of thousands of these are currently in bar, pubs and clubs in South Africa, informing their readers that often for people caught in prostitution ‘The Truth Isn’t Sexy’.

To become involved in this campaign see the website (note: graphic, concept and coaster design by LABDesign and Anna Brndiar- Webdesign by Artificial Studio – www.thetruthisntsexy.co.za