NYC Human Resources Administration teen pregnancy campaign

Hey everybody!

This post is going to be a letter to the New York City Human Resources Administration about their campaign against teen pregnancy. I´ll also show you my own teenage pregnancy awareness ad.

We got the different advertisements in class and we have been asked to decide about which we want to talk. I decided to keep my letter generally.

These are the posters:

   

 

source:http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1278957.1362423003!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_750/teen4n-web.jpg


Firstly, this is my letter:

To whom it may concern,

I´ve seen your advertisements of the anti-teen pregnancy campaign that show crying babies in real-life scenarios.
Rhetoric like “Honestly Mom … chances are he won’t stay with you. What happens to me?” and “I’m twice as likely not to graduate high school because you had me as a teen” make clear that the campaign is not about calling teenagers out to have only protected sex.
First of all, I have to say that it´s really good that an organization talks about the topic of teenage pregnancy. I think that teen pregnancies are no exceptions any more. Lots of teenagers become parents nowadays but the society doesn´t take notice of this topic.
It was really difficult for me to estimate your campaign because there are two totally different ways of how you can evaluate it. I´m holding different views because partly I agree to both sides.
On the one hand, the message is really clear and direct. Everyone knows right after reading what the advertisement is talking about. The creative sayings let people stop and give them an impulse to reassess this topic. The crying baby is a good eye-catcher and people will read the text underneath.
The photo in combination with the text and the given fact does something with you. That´s the special thing about these posters.
The strong message that teen pregnancy harms the teen parents and their child gets across and directly into our brains.
On the other hand, the message is too negative and provocative.
This advertising campaign is a perfect example for the entrenchment of differences in race, gender and class.
One of the messages is that you have to have money to “be allowed” to have a child. I feel like this is too provocative. Adults can also have financial problems and it is not about teenagers only.
It seems that if you´re poor, you´re responsible for the unhappiness and social failure of your child. But that could happen to every child, couldn´t it?
The other message is that you should graduate from high school, find a good job, earn a lot of money and get married before you even think about having a child. Here the campaign is more about repeating social norms and rules.
Girls are blamed for teen pregnancy and for broader social ills like poverty and poor education. Single mums are being blamed for not providing the best conditions for their children during the growing up process. That shouldn´t be the intention of a campaign.

I think that your intentions should be more about warning teenagers and telling them about the consequences of unprotected sex.  In my opinion, it would be better if you would present the social services, the abortion rights and the diseases which you can get by having unprotected sex: STDs and HIV / AIDS.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Yours faithfully,
Melanie Anderer


Secondly, this is my ad:

 

 

I hope you guys like it.

Love, Melanie