I found it!
Sep. 22nd, 2010 12:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
I spent all day trying to find this video!
I would love to tell you what it's about, but you absolutely have to experience it firsthand. It's short!
After seeing that on the news I was so stunned that I just sat there for a full minute before turning to Ana (poor Ana!) and treating her to a 20 minute rant on just how bad it was. Notably, once it was explained to her, Ana forgot that she was disagreeing with everything I said on general principles and agreed - that's the suckiest ad ever.
The rant actually topped my Lunchables rant (poor Eva!) in terms of sheer epic anger, though not in scale - the Lunchables was three separate rants, dragging Evangeline back to the scene every time, as different aspects of their villainy became apparent to me. (And all she'd done was ask if I'd buy her one as a treat! Short answer? NO.)
I would love to tell you what it's about, but you absolutely have to experience it firsthand. It's short!
Poll #4535 Poll on the video!
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7
Now that you've seen that amazingly failacious* video, what do you feel like doing? Check all that apply.
View Answers
Laughing
4 (66.7%)
Crying
3 (50.0%)
Killing somebody
2 (33.3%)
Abandoning my unborn child in a safe and responsible manner rather than doing something I'm sure to regret
2 (33.3%)
Failacious - is it a word?
On a scale of 1 to 10, ranging from "incredibly insulting" to "I hope the aliens don't nuke us for sending this crap out into space", how bad was that ad?
View Answers
Mean: 7.50 Median: 8.5 Std. Dev 3.20
Mean: 7.50 Median: 8.5 Std. Dev 3.20
| 1 | 1 (16.7%) | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 0 (0.0%) | |
| 3 | 0 (0.0%) | |
| 4 | 0 (0.0%) | |
| 5 | 0 (0.0%) | |
| 6 | 0 (0.0%) | |
| 7 | 2 (33.3%) | |
| 8 | 0 (0.0%) | |
| 9 | 0 (0.0%) | |
| 10 | 3 (50.0%) |
Is it more insulting because the rap was just so bad, or because it trivializes a real and serious issue?
After seeing that on the news I was so stunned that I just sat there for a full minute before turning to Ana (poor Ana!) and treating her to a 20 minute rant on just how bad it was. Notably, once it was explained to her, Ana forgot that she was disagreeing with everything I said on general principles and agreed - that's the suckiest ad ever.
The rant actually topped my Lunchables rant (poor Eva!) in terms of sheer epic anger, though not in scale - the Lunchables was three separate rants, dragging Evangeline back to the scene every time, as different aspects of their villainy became apparent to me. (And all she'd done was ask if I'd buy her one as a treat! Short answer? NO.)
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 05:52 pm (UTC)There are a few cases every so often where babies are found in toilets or in dumpsters, or abandoned in an unsafe way, such as on a doorstep in winter. And some of these babies die, of course. I have no idea how many such babies are never found at all. And it's all very sad and tragic, but the mothers aren't doing this because they're bad kids, and it's not because they're stupid and ignorant either. Maybe some of them are, and I guess a lot of them are in serious denial right up until they give birth, but the main problem isn't them, it's the fact that they feel (and probably rightly) that they can't speak to anybody to get real help.
Of course, if they could talk to their parents about it without fearing for their wellbeing they wouldn't be in this problem in the first place. If they could talk to their parents, maybe they could get birth control, or maybe they could tell their parents they were raped, or maybe they could openly get an abortion or have the baby put up for adoption (or even keep the baby, that being the third option here).
So here you have a serious issue (babies dying) that's caused by serious problems. You have these girls who are scared and alone and feel they have nobody to talk to, who don't see that they have any choices at all, and who have a big problem that's about to get a LOT bigger.
I don't think they need to be convinced "Seriously - don't kill your child". I don't think that's the problem here. (And if it is, I doubt this commercial is what's going to help.) I think the problem is that they really don't know what to do.
Instead of a tacky and cheesy song, they could get the same message out much more respectfully and appropriately by airing a simple PSA that says "If you are about to give birth to a child you can't keep, and are scared, you should know that you can leave your baby up to the age of whatever-age-it-is at any hospital or police station and they will be taken care of. You do not have to give your name or address, you do not have to be a citizen, and you do not need your boyfriend or parents' permission to do this."
The kids in this situation don't need to be talked down to or cajoled into this, they really just need to have the information.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 06:01 pm (UTC)Was that the message of the commercial?
I couldn't understand all of it, but I got the "if you don't know what to do" rather than "instead of killing it" vibe.
Instead of a tacky and cheesy song, they could get the same message out much more respectfully and appropriately by airing a simple PSA that says "If you are about to give birth to a child you can't keep, and are scared, you should know that you can leave your baby up to the age of whatever-age-it-is at any hospital or police station and they will be taken care of. You do not have to give your name or address, you do not have to be a citizen, and you do not need your boyfriend or parents' permission to do this."
I would have found such a commercial much more appealing, too.
I hesitate to speculate what will reach the target audience best, though, because I have really no idea.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 06:06 pm (UTC)Given the context of the law, it almost has to be.
Actually, the commercial is a little misleading. They talk about adoption, but when you go the normal adoption route you have far more options and the adoption is more guaranteed. I know that in some states babies abandoned in this way are actually in a bit of a limbo, because neither parent is identified to give up parental rights.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 10:20 pm (UTC)So, evidently, yes, QED the MA Baby Safe Haven law does have a PR problem and teens need to be informed that it exists and how to use it.
As to whether something less tacky would work better, I dunno. In this case, based on the neighborhood (this is where I work) I suspect it needed to be in Spanish.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 10:46 pm (UTC)