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Child mental-health ads too hot to handle Controversy seems inevitable when you create ransom-note- style ads beginning with phrases like, “We have taken your son.” But apparently it’s the message, not the approach, that has put a quick end to a new poster campaign for the Child Study Center. The ads, which you can see at Osocio, were created pro bono by BBDO to raise awareness of psychiatric disorders like depression, autism, ADHD and OCD. The writing is terse and visceral. “We have your daughter,” one poster says. “We are forcing her to throw up after every meal she eats.” But not all disorders are as clear-cut as bulimia. Advocates for children with autism felt the campaign perpetuated negative stereotypes with phrases like, “He will no longer be able to care for himself or interact socially as long as he lives.” While it’s obvious the campaign was intended to spark controversy, Child Study Center founder Dr. Harold S. Koplwicz raises a valid point when he says, “It’s the first time that the issue of children’s mental health has gotten national attention without being precipitated by a shooting at a high school or college.” —Posted by David Griner

December 20, 2007 in Griner | Permalink

Comments

I am sitting in a living room on a comfy sofa not yet taking a walk, but alas, I hear the sound of a tree falling in the forest.

And that's a good thing, even though I am rather green politically.

Posted by: nancy | Dec 20, 2007 3:33:34 PM

Of course, I am not sure if the tree is falling north or south, nor if it's falling for or against the beginning or end.

The only way to find out is for me to go discovering myself.

Posted by: nancy | Dec 20, 2007 3:49:37 PM

Yes, I agree with you that child's attitude is very difficult to understand they behave differently in different conditions of time.

Posted by: Quit Smoking | Dec 21, 2007 2:30:41 AM

Every one of the ads was a grossly misleading stereotype, even the bulimia ad; many people with bulimia don't throw up at all, but simply binge-eat and then skip several meals, as I am sure the folks at the Child Study Center well know.

As for school shootings, Dr. Koplewicz appears to be suggesting that children who have the conditions mentioned in the ads are likely to turn violent without medication, which is yet another untrue stereotype. School shootings are certainly not the only precipitating cause of national attention; to the contrary, in recent years, we've seen a widespread and totally unprovoked clamor for "combating autism" and "war on autism." It's past time for decent people to actually do something useful to help kids with cognitive differences, rather than creating mass hysteria and treating them as public enemies.

Posted by: autisticbfh@hotmail.com | Dec 21, 2007 7:58:39 PM

That comparison is strangely unoriginal:
http://shotgun-boogie.livejournal.com/

Posted by: Ivy | Dec 30, 2007 10:14:14 PM

Oops. That was for the post below.

Posted by: Ivy | Dec 30, 2007 10:15:33 PM

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