Time To Speak Up
Child sexual abuse is not a topic most people like to talk about. In fact, even when confronted with the suspicion of child abuse of a friend or family member, many people will remain silent. That’s why Serve’s campaign to bring child sexual abuse out in the open is so important. Using provocative billboards, radio, TV and bus shelters showing abused kids hiding in the shadows, the campaign asks adults to take responsibility for speaking up on behalf of sexually abused children who cannot stand up for themselves.
The ads encourage adults to visit timetospeakup.org to find out what to say and when to say it. The most unique part of the attention-getting effort, however, was the installation of guerrilla street graphics on busy sidewalks in Milwaukee. The graphics showed young children peering out from under manholes, from inside garbage cans and out of sewer grates with headlines spray painted next to them that read, “Bring child sexual abuse out in the open.” The guerrilla effort created a buzz in the city and a media frenzy around the campaign. Local television, radio and newspapers all did extensive stories on child sexual abuse. In the first month, over 16,000 people visited the website to get information.
