Environmental activists and government prosecutors on Tuesday took aim at Mexico City's most dangerous neighborhood in a controversial campaign to discourage the illegal consumption of sea-turtle eggs.
MEXICO CITY — Environmental activists and government prosecutors on Tuesday took aim at Mexico City's most dangerous neighborhood in a controversial campaign to discourage the illegal consumption of sea-turtle eggs.
Volunteers spread out in the Tepito neighborhood, known for its contraband and illegal drugs, to distributed posters and post cards designed to dispel the urban legend that the eggs from endangered sea turtles make men more sexually potent.
The ads, which feature a scantily clad model and a hotline number for environmental prosecutors, have been criticism by Mexico's National Women's Institute as offensive and a step back in the Mexico's efforts to overcome ingrained machismo.
"My man does not need turtle eggs because he knows that they don't make him more potent," bikini-clad Argentine model Dorismar purrs from the posters.
Activists on Tuesday defended the ads as effective marketing, during a press conference at Garibaldi square, famous for its smoky bars and swaggering mariachis.
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"The poster is very attractive and, yes, it's going to call the attention of the consumer," said Homero Aridjis, president of the Group of 100 environmentalist organization.
Sea turtles, once hunted in Mexico for their meat and eggs, were declared a protected species in 1990, and killing them or taking their eggs is now a crime.
The Mexican government pledged to provide greater protection for sea turtles after about 80 were found slaughtered earlier this year on La Escobilla beach in southern Oaxaca state.
Environmental prosecutors said they hoped posting ads in city neighborhoods will encourage anonymous tips against traffickers, be they restaurants or street-side seafood stands.
"To get rid of this market is the only way to get rid of this consumption," said Adriana Rivero, an inspector with Mexico's federal environmental prosecutor's office.
Potential penalties range from about $200 (euro165) to about US$200,000 (euro165,000), but do not include jail time, she said.
Writer and environmental activist Natalia Toledo said she grew up eating turtle eggs in the Pacific coast state of Oaxaca, another focus of the current advertising campaign, but changed her eating habits out of concern for sea turtles.
Men remain the principal consumers, she said, because many still believe erroneously in the power of turtle eggs as an aphrodisiac.
"It's a total lie," Toledo said. "I think the best attribute a man can have is his word."
Source: Associated Press
