Pacific Highlander

Stopping the Traffic in Melbourne

Over the weekend I joined up with a freeze flash mob raising awareness of the sex trafficking trade and calling for an end to the practice.

The protest was organised by Adrian Greenwood from the More Praxis network, an expression of the Uniting Church in Australia, Victoria/Tasmania Synod. Many of the participants were attending the Forge Grassroots Festival. The idea was for a group to freeze on cue for five minutes, while pedestrians walked past, stopped and stared, or took brochures. It’s designed to be a non violent, viral kind of exercise that invites others to engage in their own way.

Interestingly enough the photograph here shows a freeze flash mob outside The Body Shop. Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, was a strong advocate for the introduction of a new European convention against the trafficking of human beings.

This YouTube clip was prepared by Darren Wright, who while freezing in Bourke St had his camera on rapid photography mode.

For more information on the Stop The Traffic Campaign see www.stopthetraffik.org.

I’ve written up a few advertising campaigns at Duncan’s TV, each of them rather disturbing.

Human Trafficking is Torture by Any Other Name (Helen Bamber Foundation - Emma Thompson)

Lost in Translation (Helen Bamber Foundation)
Let’s End Violence Against Women (UNIFEM)
Football Streaker (MTV End Exploitation and Trafficking)

Tags: Advertising, Australia, Forge, human traffic, Melbourne