No, you’re not seeing things… “Hey students! Improve your lifestyle… Go out with a Sugar Daddy” is what is being offered to students by this unscrupulous dating site, RichMeetBeautiful.
On and around university campuses, 5 by 3 metre billboards are displayed on dozens of vehicles that are driving street to street and basically encouraging students to make ends meet by prostituting themselves. Or, more ‘poetically’, to meet a ‘Sugar Daddy’, the definition of which is: “A rich older man who lavishes gifts in a young woman, or young women, in return for her company or sexual favors”.
According to Le Soir, the target of the advert is very clear, leaving no ambiguity.
“If the company sells ‘Fifty Shades of Gray’ as a highly glamorized idea, the reality is student prostitution.”
The RichMeetBeautiful site has a goal to enlist 300,000 new registrations by the end of 2018. According to sociologist Renaud Maes, who is the only researcher to have investigated student prostitution in Belgium, the risk is unfortunately very small for these companies who have legal teams watching their backs.
“These firms usually have very shrewd lawyers.”
The CEO of Sigurd Vedal’s company, downplayed the advertisement:
“(The ad is) not promoting prostitution, the financial aspect is part of any relationship.”
Renaud Maes is trying to sound the alarm about the “increasing financial insecurity of students”.
“If we really want to stop this type of prostitution, it is not enough to prevent advertising from reaching students, but we must make sure that it is something they would never need to consider, and that we fight these threats.”
This article is the translation of an article “Belgique : Une campagne de pub encourage les étudiantes à se prostituer” published on Info Chrétienne
