When Corlice Petersen, a professor in human development and family studies at Iowa State, was approached about writing an article about the provocative Calvin Klein advertising campaign for USA Today, she had a better idea.

Petersen had noticed what she thought was a trend in all kinds of advertisements where young children were being victimized and sexually exploited to sell products. Calvin Klein came under fire recently for allowing children to pose in a “grown-up manner” in printed advertisements.

An opinion article written by Petersen about children being exploited as sex objects was printed in the Oct. 2 edition of USA Today, a national daily newspaper. Petersen said she got a lot of her ideas for the article from students in her human sexuality class.

“I have noticed two trends in advertising: one is that men’s bodies are being portrayed more sexually in advertisements, and the other is this disturbing trend with children. It’s pure victimization,” she said. “These children are too young to realize what is happening to them and that they are being exploited.”

Printing an article in USA Today seemed like the perfect way to get her message out, Petersen said.

“I thought this would be a way to educate a broader public than just the academic community. My goal was to get my message out and sensitize people,” she said. “Young children don’t have a public voice and it’s our responsibility as adults to provide them with a safe and nurturing society. We need to protect their boundaries and I raise my voice in opposition to this victimization of children to promote a product.”

On Monday, Petersen was interviewed by “Radio America” out of Washington D.C. Tuesday she was on “Prime Time Addition News Talk Television,” and she had an interview with an ABC affiliate radio talk show out of Seattle. Petersen said she has gotten a positive response from her colleagues.

“My primary purpose was to get the message out and so far this has been very rewarding,” Petersen said.

Beside the responses Petersen received after her article was published, she said she also found working with USA Today to be rewarding.

“Glen Nishimura, the man in charge of my piece, was extremely personable and respectful. I also learned some new things like op-ed means ‘opinion and editorials.'”

A nice bonus, Petersen said, was a $250 paycheck.

“I didn’t know that I was going to get paid until the very end when Glen was explaining everything to me. It was the last thing he mentioned. But it is nice,” she said.