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German TV Ads Promote Children "as a Cherished Matter of Course"

By Hilary White

September 23, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com ) - "You drive us crazy. You scream all night. You wet the bed," says a recent German language TV spot, going on to list a host of the various annoyances, both big and small, that come of having a child. The ad then continues, "Yes, you drive us crazy. With happiness."

The 2007 campaign, "Du bist Deutschland" (You are Germany), which was paid for by private businesses and promoted as a public service by media and sports stars, consisted of a two-minute television and three print ads, all of which were intended to promote the idea of having children to the child-starved European nation. 

Recently the TV ad's German voice-over was supplemented with subtitles in English and in Spanish and then posted to YouTube.

By way of the ads, the sponsors of the campaign intended to generate a lively public debate on the country's disastrously low birth rate, "with the ultimate objective of restoring the idea of having children as a cherished matter of course." The creators of the campaign said they were responding to the problem of a growing anti-child sentiment Germany. "People's desire to have children is lower in Germany than in any other EU member state," they wrote on the campaign's website.

One print ad features a photo of a child with Down syndrome and the text, "You are completely ruining our lives. Ever since you appeared on the scene it's been like Piccadilly Circus around here. You teach us something new every day: how to get your little sister to laugh in no time. How to beat Daddy hands down in the 100 metres freestyle. Or how to counter people's disapproving looks with a simple smile. We're slowly starting to see the world with your eyes. And suddenly it all makes sense."

The ads were the biggest social marketing campaign in Germany's recent history and were seen by an estimated 42 million people. The print ads appeared in 46 magazines and 21 daily newspapers. The video and audio spots appeared on twelve television channels, 148 radio stations and in 766 cinemas in just under 200 towns.

The sponsors said they hoped to use the preconceptions often held by people without any children, that "children are loud, rude and difficult, and break everything" to remind the childless public of the "joy that kids can bring: loving and being loved, laughter and surprises."

"We show these people all the things they usually push to the back of their minds, but that are actually the real bringers of joy. Authentic love that can even melt the hearts of people without children."

The video's voiceover says, "You show us that it is never the wrong time to receive you. You have mother and father, and you need the whole country to grow happily. You are not alone. You are our most valuable task."

Since the ads were aired the birth rate in Germany has risen slightly, from the lowest in Europe, with an average of 1.37 children per woman and 30 per cent of women childless in 2005, to 1.41 children born per woman in 2008.

To see the television ad, go to: http://www.adforum.com/affiliates/creative_archive/2007/ACT/reel_detail2.asp?ID=...=

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