Italy begs women to have more babies for the sake of the nation, totally embarrasses the nation
In its battle to get Italians to make more babies, the Italian government has made an embarrassing misstep.
Health minister Beatrice Lorenzin recently announced that Sept. 22 would be the country’s first “Fertility Day,” when state-sponsored events in Rome, Bologna, Catania and Padova offer the public information about family planning and encourage parenthood. In anticipation of that special day, the ministry launched a #FertilityDay campaign, with 12 promotional images that quickly went viral in all the wrong ways.
Several images have a vaguely threatening tone: “Beauty has no age. But fertility does,” reads one, with an image of a stress-smiling woman thrusting an hourglass into the foreground. “Fertility is a common good,” declares one. “Male fertility is much more vulnerable than you might think,” reads a third, with a picture of a decaying banana peel.
Another image reads, “Young parents. The best way to be creative.” But as many on Twitter have pointed out, Italy’s youth unemployment rate last year was a staggering 42 percent—which hardly makes creating dependents seem like the best way to be creative.
The #FertilityDay campaign includes an online game, which Vice Italia compared to Space Invaders, and a website, from which most content has since been removed.
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