As part of Asthon Kutcher and Demi Moore's "Real Men Don't Buy Girl's" campaign against child sex slavery, big names such as Bradley Cooper, Sean Penn, Justin Timberlake, Jamie Foxx and Eva Longoria have taken part in these controversial and rather different PSAs. (See Bradley Cooper's and Sean Penn's videos below.)
The videos have caused quite a stir, but speaking to an E!Online reporter, Kutcher and his wife were happy to talk about them.
He said: "Real men don't buy girls ... that sounds asinine ... Meanwhile, it's a $39 billion dollar industry. So I understand that people think it's asinine and that it's obvious real men don't buy girls. But is it that obvious? Because if it was, it wouldn't be a $39 billion industry--which is more than Google and Starbucks combined."
The actor and "Punk'd" creator maintains there is method to their madness in making these PSAs ridiculous.
Kutcher explains: "It's a really hard issue for people to talk about ... People don't even like talking about sex with their own kids, let alone sex slavery, so maybe making it funny and maybe taking a little bit of different approach and saying something that seems absolutely obvious to everyone--'Real men don't buy girls'--maybe you have to make it that obvious for people to start talking about it."
Moore agreed wholeheartedly and said that the aim of their project is to start a discussion, a conversation about the issue.
"People's criticism has created even more conversation," said Moore. "While we didn't want to offend anybody and it's certainly not our intention to make light of any issue we take very seriously, we see that it's actually doing what we intended."
The "G.I. Jane" actress and mother of three emphasized that these movies are not meant to demean or poke fun at men. She said: "This isn't about hating men. I love men! But it's about changing behaviors that have become acceptable that men and women alike just look at it and say 'Oh, you're going to a prostitute? Men do that and she's choosing it [the lifestyle].' But the truth is, the average age of entry is 13, and I don't know any 13-year-old choosing to be a prostitute."
Their campaign was launched this week in New York City. Their aim is to stop sex trafficking by using social media.
Although this may sound paradoxical, Kutcher explained to Pier Morgan on "Piers Morgan Tonight" why they chose this method.
He said "I don't believe that there's a problem in the world that exists that the solutions didn't exist before the problem ... So that's why we're using social media for this campaign. It's to actually go right into the heart of where it's taking place. Seventy-six percent of the transactions for child sex slavery is actually happening online. So if we can motivate people while they are online to do something about that, then we can make a dent."
Comments