If the goal was to spark discussion and surprise, the supposed “genocide pictures” posted around Wells Hall on Monday and Tuesday certainly accomplished their task.

MSU Students for Life and the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform organized “The Genocide Awareness Project,” a photo exhibit of aborted fetuses alongside historical examples of genocide, including victims of the Holocaust and Rwandan and Cambodian massacres.

The Wells Hall courtyard is known for startling displays and protests, and the last couple of days have proved to be no exception.

But this was not the best way to make a point. Certainly participants were well within their rights to organize this event and put it on, but it should have been done more tastefully than it was.

Displays like these are a quick way to get attention, but do little to win people over to a cause. Generally, they only repulse and disgust the more sensitive, and irritate the general population.

In addition, the genocide angle was hardly an appropriate comparison for their argument. Supporters of abortion are not out to kill babies just because they are babies. There is not a governmental or political movement that is driven to slaughter unborn infants for the very scientific reason of “just because.” As genocide is the systematic destruction of a political, ethnic or cultural group, the exhibit’s message is clearly inaccurate, and mixed with something else entirely.

With the displays designed the way they were, it seemed organizers wanted to rely more on shock value than substance.

It’s a shame to see demonstrations having to come to this. Usually when a group holds meetings and symposiums to create awareness for an issue, they are poorly attended and accomplish little. Groups are understandably frustrated with a lack of attention.

So it comes down to an all-out, attention-grabbing shocker like this to garner results.

Discussion and the exchange of ideas is a wonderful thing to find on a college campus, but using mixed messages and graphic photography is not a good way to bring it about. We’d like to see campus protests better suited to convey their meaning.

But there will always be the protests that do little other than produce grumbling and flaring opinions. And as much as they may be unwelcome, organizers have a right to host them, as long as they remain within law.

Students across the country will have the opportunity to see the same images, as representatives from the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform travel around the country to put on these displays. But it would be fortunate if they would stop for a moment and better think out their argument.

Students for Life and the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform would reach more people, and convince still more of their ideals, if their message was more carefully constructed. Unsettling pictures and incorrect comparisons designed to shock and disturb do not do anything of merit.

Abortion activists of either persuasion need to design their messages carefully. As sensitive of a topic as it is - a fact they must certainly be aware of - they will not reach out to people with a crudely designed message like the one this week.