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Scant coverage helps turtles' cause
http://www.mexicanwave.com/blog/200509/20050902.html
Turtle protectionists combat that tiny sucking sound with sensual publicity.
2 September 2005
By Talli Nauman
Maybe next time protectors of the endangered sea turtles could hire a virile, scantily clothed man to advertise their cause, since putting a female
Playboy model on their banners and posters has kicked up such controversy this time.
But the advertisers have already verified that two wrongs don't make a right.
Their pandering a sex symbol to combat myths of sexuality has drawn criticism from the sex equality camp and caused coastal environmental authorities
in Guerrero, who usually are pretty hip to the bikini billboards of Acapulco, to plead for the state to be omitted from the target audience list.
The campaign to vanquish the custom of eating sea turtle eggs as aphrodisiacs is being spearheaded by Argentine model Dorismar, who has been teamed up
with members of the mega-popular norte?o group Los Tigres del Norte by a whole menagerie of activist organisations.
Mexico's National Women's Institute says it's degrading and sexist to attack the issue using sex appeal as the weapon. But the extraordinarily lovely
"Dorita," as she is fondly nicknamed, has relatively few qualms about heralding the human body as an object, of course, since that's how she makes
what appears to be a very honest living.
For its part, Los Tigres del Norte has announced that members do not eat turtle eggs - and their ratings have not diminished. Their volunteers
distributed turtle protection information, postcards and stickers during their recent tour that ended in June, reaching thousands of fans in some of
the centres of population where the custom is most prevalent - Mexico City, Ciudad Obreg?n, Hermosillo, Tijuana and Mexicali.
The groups Wildcoast, Pronatura Noroeste, Fondo Educaci?n Ambiental, Colectivo Creativo, Selva Negra, Grupo de los Cien, and Fondo de Conservaci?n del
Golfo de California raised billboards and other ads during the Roman Catholic fasting period and observation of Lent in February and March, when
consumption of sea turtle meat typically soars due to the mistaken belief that it is fish rather than red meat.
In their next step this turtle nesting season, the activists are putting up the Dorismar ads beginning in September on billboards near Mexico City and
nesting states including Jalisco, Michoacan, and Guerrero.
The ads urge people to report illegal trade in the species to the Federal Attorney General's Office for Environmental Protection (Profepa).
Outside of Mexico, media coverage of the gal with scanty coverage in the publicity already has been generous, drawing attention to the messages: "My
man doesn't need turtle eggs" and "Sea turtle eggs DO NOT increase sexual potency!"
Luis Fueyo, head of Profepa coastal enforcement, said the federal agency will participate and distribute the posters in its offices nationwide. So the
controversy has worked in favour of the conservationists - and therefore hopefully in favour of the 200-million-year-old species.
Mexican beaches are nesting habitats for seven of the world's eight sea turtle species, and all of them are in danger of extinction.
Since Mexico banned hunting, sale and consumption of sea turtles and by-products in 1990, manifold efforts have helped coastal residents formerly in
the turtle trade to make their livings protecting the critters and in other lines of work.
So I thought the days of intensive commercialisation were over. But marine conservationists now say the ban has created a flourishing black market;
and the interest in sucking raw turtle eggs to increase male sexual prowess has grown in recent years.
As if to punctuate this statement, 80 sea turtles were bludgeoned and butchered alive in one single massacre this August on the Guerrero coast. As
many as 100 eggs can be removed from a dead female. On another stretch of Guerrero's coast near Petatl?n, at least 100,000 eggs have disappeared this
nesting season.
Now that campaigners have answered to the feminist challenge about using a woman's body to advertise the cause, they are bound to face the
environmentalist challenge that billboards create visual pollution.
If only the message can filter down to the right people in the meantime.
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Mike Humfreville
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Thanks for the info...
Remember the failed attempts to market "diet" Coke in Mexico? They were a complete flop until Coke started calling their product "Coca Lite."
Sometimes it's all in the perception. While it might upset some folks, the overall good of saving the turtles hopefully outweighs the controversial
approach. I know a couple of folks that have spent lifetimes on turtle protectionism. I'd bet they are pleased with the additional support, almost
without regard for the source.
Here's to the turtles.
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movinguy
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Registered: 3-19-2004
Location: Chula Vista, CA and Tijuana, MX
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Don't know why the feminists in Mexico singled out this effort. Just turn on Sabado Gigante or one of the soaps on Univision and see how women are
typically portrayed. There is a Saturday morning show for kids where the female hosts sport hotpants and knee-high boots - looks like something out
of Laugh-In in the 60's . . . 
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