Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore Say Jokey Anti-Child Sex Slavery PSAs Worked as 'Intended'

The Internet let out a collective "Whaaaaaaaaa?" upon seeing the "Real Men Don't Buy Girls" campaign that Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore debuted earlier this week as a way to inform the public about child sex slavery -- and apparently that was just the reaction the star couple was hoping for.

Speaking with E! Online at the launch party for their DNA Foundation on Thursday night, Kutcher said the PSAs -- which feature Hollywood stars like Bradley Cooper and Sean Penn doing "manly" things like eating cereal and milk out of the box -- were designed to be somewhat ridiculed.

Real men don't buy girls... that sounds asinine. Meanwhile, it's a $39 billion dollar industry. So I understand that people think it's asinine and that it's obvious real men don't buy girls. But is it that obvious? Because if it was, it wouldn't be a $39 billion industry -- which is more than Google and Starbucks combined. [...] People don't even like talking about sex with their own kids, let alone sex slavery, so maybe making it funny and maybe taking a little bit of different approach and saying something that seems absolutely obvious to everyone -- 'Real men don't buy girls' -- maybe you have to make it that obvious for people to start talking about it.

Echoed Moore:

"People's criticism has created even more conversation. While we didn't want to offend anybody and it's certainly not our intention to make light of any issue we take very seriously, we see that it's actually doing what we intended."

Indeed they have. Though despite the faux-happy ending to this story, it still seems a little weird to use Sean Penn making a grilled cheese as a way to inform the public about child sex slavery. To each their own...

· Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore on Their "Asinine" Sex-Slavery PSAs: "They Did What We Intended" [E!]