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With thousands of minors trekking perilously from Central America through Mexico and into the United States, several nations are looking for new ways to halt the flow.

But can El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras 鈥� with聽high rates of murder and unemployment 鈥� convince their citizens to stay put? And can the US persuade migrants that the 鈥淎merican Dream鈥� may not be worth dying for?

They're giving it a shot 鈥� with cartoons, posters, and hit pop songs.

El Salvador this week launched a public service campaign to educate families about the risks of sending their kids to the US. The animated ad is presented like a storybook, with the voice of a young child reading the title, and listing all the terrible things that frequently happen to unaccompanied minors along the northward journey.

鈥淚t鈥檚 all lies. We spent days without eating and he hit me,鈥� one child tells viewers about the promises made by "coyotes," or smugglers, of safe passage.

Another child chimes in, 鈥淔or me, the coyote sold me to other people who forced me to work and abused me.鈥�

The commercial, complete with evil laughs and ominous drawings, is anything but cheerful. It ends with a serious lecture from a grandmotherly figure, and advises viewers to take care of and protect their children. 鈥淚t鈥檚 our responsibility,鈥� she warns.

The hope is聽that the message reaches any adult who might consider sending 鈥� or sending for 鈥� a child.聽The clip started playing "in all corners" of El Salvador on Tuesday, and is scheduled to air in parts of the US with large Salvadoran populations, like Washington D.C., Texas, and California.

"It's not right that unscrupulous people who profit from trafficking [humans] are creating rumors, confusing fathers and mothers so that they send their children to risk their lives," said Minister of Foreign Affairs Hugo Mart铆nez.

Will it make a difference?

Some estimates have more than 90,000 migrants under 18 attempting to enter the US illegally across the Mexican border by year's end. Already the US has started deporting children and mothers, in hopes they carry a clear message back: Don鈥檛 risk the journey, you鈥檒l be sent home.

ad campaign in the region this month aimed at stemming the flow of young migrants. The 鈥淒anger Awareness Campaign鈥� will utilize hundreds of billboards and some 6,500 TV and radio spots. 聽According to the Associated Press, a TV ad set to run in Guatemala shows a teen boy getting ready to leave home for the US, sending a strong warning to viewers.

His mother pleads with him not to go. He confides to his uncle -- already in the U.S. -- in a letter that she's warning him about the dangers of the gangs on the train that immigrants ride through Mexico, the cartels that kidnap and the days long walk in the desert. Ultimately, he writes his uncle, "he who doesn't take a chance, doesn't win."聽

The next image is of the boy dead on the cracked desert floor. A voice over says smugglers' claims that new arrivals will easily get papers are false. The television and radio spots all finish with a similar parting message: "They are our future. Protect them."

In case the TV spots and billboards are too obvious, the US has had success with other approaches 鈥� like pop music 鈥� in the past. In the early 2000s the border patrol hired an agency to write songs about the risks of illegal immigration, reports the Associated Press. Lyrics included things like, "/ Abelardo opened his eyes/ And in the middle of the cold night/ Discovered his dead cousin at his side," set to an upbeat, accordion-filled tune.聽

In 2009, the songs and other measures were credited with helping decrease the number of border-crossing-related deaths.

According to The Daily Beast, there鈥檚 a more recent US-penned hit filled with messaging called 鈥淟a Bestia,鈥� or "The Beast." It鈥檚 a nickname for the freight trains that carry migrants across Mexico, and that are responsible for many deaths and lost limbs along the way. Rodolfo Hernandez wrote the lyrics, including: 鈥淭hey call her the Beast from the South, this wretched train of death. With the devil in the boiler, whistles, roars, twists and turns.鈥�

鈥淚 really think that putting music to this message makes it very powerful, because people listen to the radio in their towns and their villages,鈥� said 鈥淟a Bestia鈥� composer Carlo Nicolau. 鈥淭he songs don鈥檛 accuse anyone of wrongdoing, there are no heroes or villains in these stories. They are just letting people know that their lives are in danger.鈥�

To be sure, a new surge in Central American youths arriving at the US-Mexican border involves run-ins with armed gangs and corrupt police officers, threats of rape and robbery, and passages atop thundering freight trains or crossing quick-moving rivers. But such events have gone on for decades.

And so have campaigns trying to stem the flow.

An excerpt below from a conversation between a professor of sociology, David Spener, and a migrant from Mexico, published by the Economist in 2010, highlights how ads meant to deter migration or highlight the dangers聽:

Spener: So, your opinion at this time is that people are better off聽crossing with a coyote.

脕lvaro: I think so. But moreover, immigration itself has a poster聽there that says 鈥淭rust a coyote.鈥� In other words, how does it say,聽saying that a coyote is better, that you shouldn't risk it on your聽own.

Spener: The Border Patrol says that? [incredulous]

脕lvaro: Right. They have a poster there that I saw.

Spener: Where? On the Mexican side or the American side?

脕lvaro: On the American side.

Spener: And what did it say?

脕lvaro: It's there, in Spanish, and it says 鈥淚t's better to pay a聽coyote than to cross alone.鈥� And there's a cross painted there.聽People cross on their own and a lot of them don't make it. They聽die, they drown, and all that. And it's better, recommended, to聽pay a coyote.

Spener: Well, I've seen those posters, in fact I have a copy of one聽in my office. It's a photograph of the desert.

脕lvaro: Right, of the desert. With a grave and a cross.

Spener: With a cross there and it says 鈥淗e trusted a coyote.鈥�

脕lvaro: [repeats] He trusted a coyote!

Spener: And he wound up dead. That's the message, right?

脕lvaro: Right. But no, that's not it. They're saying, a coyote is聽better than going it alone. That's how I understood it. A lot of聽people come on their own and that is what happens to them. But聽I didn't understand it very well. I just read it in passing.

Spener: In the detention center where you were?

脕lvaro: Right, but I didn't read it very well. It's just my idea, my聽interpretation.

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