413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

hour special. In-calls only.” You put it up under the massage heading. You have your ho
take certain precautions … Tell him to bring ID, ask, “Where do you work” Ask
questions. Try to get a vibe for who you dealing with. Feds go through there a lot and it’s
easy to get busted in the paper. (D13)
Similar to online advertisements, newspaper advertisements allowed pimps the opportunity to interact
with clients prior to initiating a transaction, impose requirements (such as identification), and advertise
without exposure to the dangers of working on the streets. The type of newspaper advertisement could
also impact the rates charged. One respondent explained, “You have alternative lifestyle newspapers
where you can place ads. Depending on the ad, you can charge up to $2,300 an hour” (D10).
Phonebook classifieds were also used, and had to be updated and reposted far less frequently than
newspaper advertisements or online classifieds. Phonebooks afforded many of the same opportunities:
We would only have to do Yellow Pages ads once a year and then they would be in them
all year. We had the links to our website on Craigslist and Backpage. And I don’t know if
you’ve ever looked in the Yellow Pages, you can see all the pictures back there so they
could see what they wanted. And when new girls would come along, I would always take
them to go shopping and have a photo shoot. The guys that call through the Yellow Pages,
they spend more money. The guys who come into town on business for a couple days,
they can find the Yellow Pages in the hotel room, and the thing is that through them you
know exactly who you’re getting. There is more than one girl—a couple or a whole
bunch—you can call. So they know exactly who they’re getting. (A8)
Print advertisement such as newspapers, alternative lifestyle papers, and phones books also provided a
detection tool for law enforcement, and pimps attempted to maintain discretion by posting under sections
such as “Massage Services.” One respondent reflected, “The biggest undercover thing that pimps do is call
a masseuse. We call that legalized prostitution. Send girls to get a masseuse license, and that’s legal. You
go and then get a happy ending” (D5).
Business Cards
Pimps also used business cards for advertisement; 23 percent of respondents reported handing out
business cards to connect with customers. In some cases, each employee had their own business card
which listed a fake business, rather than overtly advertised sex: “I had cards on the streets—each girl had
a card with their information. It might be Sharon’s Catering Service” (D3).
Unlike print advertisements or online classifieds, which allowed for little control over audience, business
cards could be passed out to targeted clientele. One respondent observed that a particular date house
primarily served a Latino clientele, and business cards were used to perpetuate this policy: “The date
houses had cards that were handed out. The cards would say it was for another type of business like
cleaning but people knew what it was for. Mainly people would hand out the cards to only Latinos, but
sometimes to white people” (G5). However, business cards required pimps and employees to take a more
proactive role in engaging and soliciting customers, a task that could decrease their anonymity. Pimps
sometimes hired non-sex work employees to hand out cards: “I mainly got a lot of calls from word of
mouth or my guys would go to a strip club. They had cards. You print them out yourself” (F6).
Business cards were also an important networking tool and provided a means for pimps to connect
possible customers with other methods of advertisement. Business cards were useful for pimps when they
travelled to new cities. One respondent explained, “[I] had cards. At one time, I had flyers advertising the
escort company. The girls would go through hotels in the city. Walk up, put flyers under the door. Go to
the Hard Rock and pass out the flyers” (G10). Pimps also used cards to refer customers to websites: “The
girls had Vegas style business cards with their picture, number, my website and the girl’s name” (D18).
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