United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County has debuted a new ad campaign that encourages teens to “think twice before becoming parents,” according to the organization.
The campaign, created in partnership with Milwaukee-based Serve Marketing, placed ads on 36 bus shelters in designated areas this week. The ads feature teen parents as a hand puppet, a jack-in-the-box and a pull toy, all under the control of a larger-than-life sized baby.
The images are complemented by the line “Have a baby too young and it’ll control your life.”
“This campaign is really a stark reminder that when you have a baby as a teen, you give up control of your own life,” Gary Mueller, Serve volunteer creative director, said in a statement. “We hope that these ads embed that image in kids’ heads so that they think twice before having unprotected sex.”
The campaign is part of the Milwaukee Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative, a movement led by United Way that aims to curve Milwaukee’s teen birth rate. The initiative includes input from academic, health care, faith, government and nonprofit leaders whose collaborative efforts have resulted in a 56 percent reduction in births for teens ages 15-17 since 2006.
For more information on the new ad campaign, visit www.babycanwait.com. The website offers teens information on Milwaukee’s sexual health resources.
