Home Activism Top 10 Anti-Sex Work Billboards

Top 10 Anti-Sex Work Billboards

Have you heard that SWAAY has an Epic Step campaign to create the first sex workers’ rights billboard in America? Epic Step is like the Kickstarter of billboards, so they need your donations in order to make this happen. Just look at how many anti-sex work billboards there are.

10. I feel like twitter is to blame for anything starting with “Dear,” including “Dear John” billboards in and surrounding Chicago, IL. “Dear Starbucks,” “Dear Netflix,” “Dear rain,” “Dear Man Soliciting Sex, We’re watching you in your sleep. Love, Chicago PD.”

photo by Chuck Berman via Chicago Tribune

9. From Rochester, NY: “Dear ‘John,’ Our relationship is over. I’ll leave your sweatshirt and your Coldplay CD in a box on the porch. Good luck ever finding someone as awesome as me again.”

via WXXI.org

8. What would this list be without at least one paraphrased Bible verse? This sign was a mile away from an Adult Superstore near Forth Worth.

via kevinthecoolguy.wordpress.com

7. This is a classic Shared Hope International billboard from Seattle. Something about the fact that it’s one of those rotating billboards really cheapens it. What are the other two ads? Bacardi and Hooters? Not to be a jerk, but how does one get trafficked nightly? Don’t worry, a strictly anti-trafficking greatest hits list is on the way. There will be plenty more images of huddled up white girls crying.

6. This billboard from the University of Benin in Nigeria states that not only are trafficking and prostitution one in the same, but they are both anti-academic and anti-excellence. From now on, I am going to start referring to things as “anti-excellence.”

via University of Nigeria

5. A little shame can go a long way. This was near the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, in honor of the Super Bowl XLV. In case you can’t tell, this is actually an electronic billboard where different mugshots would flash every few minutes.

4. It’s the Kwik Kopy logo chasing the children of the illegal aliens crossing signs. This was next to a porn store in Lincoln City, Oregon.

by Chanel Joy on flickr

3. I get that this billboard from the foundation for AIDS research is supposed to be about harm reduction but I still feel like it’s saying, “I slept with a prostitute and all I got was this AIDS.” This sign reminds me of something that my strip club’s DJ says after a bachelor gets a stage dance: “Remember, there are three rings in marriage. Your ring, her ring, and suffering.”

via blog.lelalux.com

2. Hey, the original Real Men. This is an oldie but a goodie from the early nineties. I never knew the Village People did this campaign.

by kirstenpdx on flickr

1. These are currently located throughout the Atlanta metro area. Gotta love the Halloween jailbird costume. Imagine if you were trying to get into acting/modeling and this billboard was your big break. I feel like that’s the aspiring male actor equivalent of a tampon commercial.

14 COMMENTS

  1. “It’s the Kwik Kopy logo chasing the children of the illegal aliens crossing signs.”
    I died.
    Great post. Billboards should stick to telling you where the next fast food restaurant/hotel is.

  2. I’ve always bee partial to the Oregon porn billboard. I appreciate how accurately it describes my job – running after small children, pedobear-style, trying to catch them and force them to look at pictures of my vagina.

  3. I find the electronic billboard pretty upsetting. Once you serve out your sentence, pay fines, or whatever, why can you then be subjected to public humiliation? And I hope those mugshots are post-conviction at the very least.

  4. […] SWAAY are half funded at present, and give a number of rewards depending on funding level.   Your payment will only be taken if the project is completely funded, and is organised through the EpicStep website.  Sounds a good idea, bring the battle to LA and Hollywood.  Lets not forget, this is one billboard against the masses of billboards erected by the anti sexwork campaign groups.  For some examples take a look at the website Tits and Sass where they feature the top ten anti prostitution bill boards. […]

  5. […] SWAAY are half funded at present, and give a number of rewards depending on funding level.   Your payment will only be taken if the project is completely funded, and is organised through the EpicStep website.  Sounds a good idea, bring the battle to LA and Hollywood.  Lets not forget, this is one billboard against the masses of billboards erected by the anti sexwork campaign groups.  For some examples take a look at the website Tits and Sass where they feature the top ten anti prostitution bill boards. […]

  6. to be fair, the one from Nigeria is a different story. Like a lot of other economically exploited countries they lose a big percent of their population to migrant labour, in the sex trade and other migrant job markets. It fucks up their economy pretty badly from what I understand, especially because most of the money that Nigerian women earn working in Italy and other European countries just goes back into the European economy. This billboard is probably part of a campaign to stop female students in Nigeria from becoming part of the “brain drain” that often lures educated people out of poor countries because of better economic prospects. On the other hand, it’s not like anybody can be blamed for migrating to where the jobs are. If host countries let migrant sex workers unionize and have better conditions they would be able to send more money home to stimulate their own country’s economy

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