(photo: nyc.gov)
Earlier this week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the city's Human Resources Administration unveiled a new, rather direct ad campaign to discourage teen pregnancy featuring children citing blunt statistics about teen parents. "Honestly mom, chances are he won't stay with you," a baby in one ad declares, while another reads, "I'm twice as likely not to graduate high school because you had me as a teen." The campaign, which is paired with an shame-themed choose-your-own-adventure text experience, understandably gained attention and sparked controversy.
Though City Hall seemed eager to make a splash with the in-your-face ads, other local politicians have condemned the campaign.
Today, State Senator Liz Krueger released a particularly strongly worded 5-paragraph statement sharply criticizing the ads.
"As someone who has spent decades in the fight against poverty and the fight to make sure women have equal rights to have or not have children, I am appalled at the ill-targeted and pathologically mean-spirited ad campaign put forward by the New York City Human Resources Administration, supposedly intended to reduce teen pregnancy," she said. "This campaign seems laser-focused on shaming already-struggling teen parents."
Shortly after Ms. Krueger made her announcement, Councilwoman Annabel Palma also blasted the ads citing her personal experience as a teen mother.
“I was once a teenage mother. And I can imagine how teenage mothers across the city feel right now: shamed and stigmatized by Mayor Bloomberg’s ad campaign against them. Trying to shock and scare teens into changing their behavior is the wrong approach," Ms. Palma said. "I speak from experience: young mothers and fathers need better access to the support and services that will help them care for their children, and lead responsible lives as adults. Today I add my voice to the growing chorus of voices calling on Mayor Bloomberg to cancel this counterproductive and offensive ad campaign. The resources spent on the campaign should be redirected to programs and outreach that will help young people.”
For his part, Mr. Bloomberg defended the ads during his radio show this morning.
"In the days of so much media hitting everybody, if you want to stand out you got to really do something different, dramatic," he said. "You've got to get through the clutter. It's incumbent on us to explain to young kids that if you have a child, there's an enormous amount of responsibility that goes with it. It limits what your options are. ... If you have a baby, you have a responsibility and we'll do everything we can to help. And hopefully the kid will turn out to be a Nobel Prize winner and take case of his parents--or her parents--when they retire. But you got to something dramatic to get the message through. And that's what we're trying to do."
Here is Ms. Krueger's full statement below:
As someone who has spent decades in the fight against poverty and the fight to make sure women have equal rights to have or not have children, I am appalled at the ill-targeted and pathologically mean-spirited ad campaign put forward by the New York City Human Resources Administration, supposedly intended to reduce teen pregnancy.
This campaign seems laser-focused on shaming already-struggling teen parents or, ludicrously, convincing teens not to get pregnant because really bad things will happen -- sort of a failed abstinence-only sex-ed curriculum on steroids. At best, this is the wrong message for the wrong audience -- at worst, this could actually lead to more abandoned children.
Consider the messaging (coming from the mouths of babies) in these ads:
- "Honestly mom, chances are he won't stay with you."
- "Dad, you'll be paying to support me for the next 20 years."
- "I'm twice as likely not to graduate high school because you had me as a teen."
This campaign also misses a fundamental reality about teen pregnancy: it's a symptom of larger problems. Impoverished communities, a lack of support for teenagers, and continuing stigmatization of age-appropriate sex education all create an environment with more teen pregnancies. Spending money on a 'scared straight' campaign would be a distraction even if the ads weren't so fatally stupid in their design and message.
Mayor Bloomberg's administration has had a strong track record on reproductive health issues. They should stop spending money on this wrongheaded effort and do what the research shows is effective: implement, improve, and expand age-appropriate comprehensive sex education, and work harder to fight poverty in high-risk communities.