The City Council in Almería, Spain, is under fire after launching a poster campaign on sexual consent which featured a child on one version of the signage. The campaign, which advised individuals to seek consent from sexual partners, was withdrawn after immense backlash on social media.
Launched earlier this month, the urban poster campaign was approved by the City Council and utilized approximately 18,000 Euros in funding from the Ministry of Equality. Focusing on sexual violence, the primary slogan created for the campaign was a “no means no”-style advisory which read: “If [he/she] says no, it’s not sex, it’s aggression.”
The posters also included various statistics on sexual violence and branding associated with the City of Almería and the Ministry of Equality.
But while most of the posters featured stock images of adult women behind the text, one design used a photo of a little boy instead.
Superimposed over the young child’s face is the standard campaign slogan, “If he says no, it’s not sex, it’s aggression.” The poster also provided statistics on sexual violence against minors, reading: “72.3% of sexual assaults against minors occur in the victim’s family and school environment.”
Last week, photos of the poster featuring the boy began to circulate on social media, with Spanish users expressing outrage that the signage had been green-lit as it appeared to suggest that children can consent to sex.
“And if he says yes, it’s also aggression! Do not touch children,” proclaimed TV Presenter Sonia Ferrer, her tweet attracting over 80,000 ‘likes’ from similarly outraged readers.
“Withdraw this campaign of whitewashing pedophilia and resign en masse. This is intolerable,” wrote Rocío De Meer, a conservative politician with the Vox Party.
The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party in Almería similarly demanded answers, with spokesperson Adriana Valverde grilling the City Council over “who had given the go-ahead to the poster.”
After photos of the poster began to go viral, the Ministry of Equality issued a scathing statement and demanded the campaign be ended.
“The Ministry of Equality demands the immediate withdrawal of a campaign that attacks children and that, under no circumstances, can be financed with funds from the State Pact on Gender Violence,” said a ministry spokeswoman on May 15.
The City Council in Almería immediately scrambled to comply, and quickly removed all of the campaign posters which featured the boy. A brief apology was posted to the Council’s official X account which claimed that proper screening had not been done.
The apology was not well-received, with many users continuing to demand the resignation of whoever was responsible for approving the poster.
The next day, on May 16, Almería Mayor María del Mar Vázquez announced the city was fully withdrawing the campaign, noting that: “the objective [of the campaign] has not been met and will not be met by being overshadowed by the controversy raised.”