Emma Thompson as a sex slave

Emma Thompson isn't your regular celebrity. She's a great actress, and when she signs her name to a commercial, she's not shilling soft drinks but using her skills for good. In the viral ad I am Elena she tells the story of two womens lives, the same woman before and after her life is stolen as she is sold as a prostitute. It should make you uncomfortable. It does.

Click on this little image to go to the ad.

The Helen Bamber Foundation have done other things, one is the bedroom which stinks of urine and cheap perfume, you can view the room in 360 degrees on the web. They also did an installation called "The Journey" which sat in London's Trafalgar Square and simulated the experiences of trafficked women. It got press attention through protests that marched through London, including a horse-drawn funeral carriage with the phrase "Sex Slave" spelled out in flowers and images of women victims on the carriage. Hard hitting - if not downright depressing - stuff. Human trafficking is horrific, but bizarrely in the UK the punishment for smuggling humans is more lenient than smuggling drugs, so groups that were drug smugglers have changed their vocation to the more profitable trafficking.