Tonight I had the privilege of attending a special screening of the documentary film Traffic, which is part of the MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) campaign. MTV EXIT, which is produced by the 2003 established MTV Europe Foundation, was designed to raise awareness and increase prevention of human trafficking among the MTV demographic. The event was aimed to promote USAID's (The US Agency for International Development) partnership with the MTV Europe Foundation and MTV Networks, to promote a new multimedia campaign aimed at preventing human trafficking in Asia. The partnership with USAID follows the previous partnership with Sida, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, which launched a similar campaign throughout Europe in 2004.
A PSA/Billboard form the European Campaign
The EXIT campaign also produced; Parallel Lives, a series of film shorts, and Inhuman Traffic, which both aired in 2005. In 2007 the EXIT campaign produced Sold and Traffic. The campaign is currently working on two collections of film shorts, which are to premiere in the coming months, as well as several PSA's. The films while focusing on the issue of human trafficking in various regions, have all used the power of pop culture and media to express a message of awareness to many young people who are at risk of falling prey to trafficking. All of the EXIT campaign films and events have are unified with there theme of awareness and dotted by the well known faces of pop and movie stars, which are used to appeal to the MTV generation.
Tom Ehr, Executive Director of the MTV Europe Foundation and Simon Goff Director of MTV Exit-Asia where both on hand to answer questions from the audience. My question seemed to make Mr. Ehr squirm in a way that would have been completely comical had it not been for the obvious disdain at the question. Nonetheless he took the time to address my question;
“How does MTV grapple with running a series of anti-trafficking events like this, in the face of producing shows that glorify the use of the word ‘pimp’ and the ‘pimp lifestyle’?”
In response Mr. Ehr stated that they had tried to be a bit of a 'trojan horse’, but the issues of free speech seemed to win out in the MTV board room, however also stated,
“We feel as long as we keep hammering away at this then we can make a difference!”
In other remarks on the question Mr. Ehr made the following statement which I would like to leave you with as a thinking point; “We are doing our best in a company aimed at youth culture…sadly we have all see where youth entertainment has gone.” With that I ask you this one question? I agree a hundred percent that there has been a demise in the quality of youth programing. Therefore should the glorification of ‘pimp’n’ be one of the social responsible acts of MTV and similar companies?