An advocacy site for global gender equality created fake cover images and stories mimicking iconic magazines to depict modern slavery among women.
Catapult, the crowdfunding site, recently launched a campaign against international violations of human rights against women in the name of International Women's Day (IWD), held March 8. The site, whose goal is the advancement of women and girls, wanted IWD to be "more than just a cover story."
These well-known women's magazine titles like Seventeen, Good Housekeeping and Bride were cleverly changed to Thirteen, Good Slavekeeping and Child Bride, respectively, to bring issues like human trafficking, modern slavery and child marriages to the forefront.
"Thankfully, these are fake magazines," Maz Kessler, Catapult's founder and creative director, told Mashable. "Unfortunately, these are real problems."
Coupled with the renovated magazine titles and underage models are fake headlines such as "Hide Those Bruises With 35 Easy Makeup Tricks" and "The Wedding You'll Never Forget But Wish You Could."
Kessler came up with the idea, and on the Catapult website facts appear next to each cover on the campaign page, including that some 14 million girls - some as young as 8 years old - will be married against their will in 2014. Also, an estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked into slavery each year - 80 percent of whom are girls. And in New York City, the average age at which a girl first becomes a victim of commercial sexual exploitation is 13.
Next to each horrifying statistic is a button that reads "Do Something About It," encouraging visitors to pick and donate to one of the 140 organizations that Catapult supports.
Since its launch in October 2012, Catapult has funded 314 projects in 81 countries, and raised a total of $5.5 million in 2013 alone. It currently has 56 open projects dedicated to women's rights, and a 94 percent project success rate.
"You may think that we're poking fun at serious issues, but ... Catapult is very serious in our efforts to change the world," Kessler said.
