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The New York University Child Study Center is launching a “Ransom Notes” public awareness campaign with the message that Millions Of Children [are] Held Hostage By Psychiatric Disorders. The ad for autism says:
We have your son. We will make sure he will no longer be able to care for himself or interact socially as long as he lives. This is only the beginning…
and the ad for Asperger Syndrome says
We have your son. We are destroying his ability for social interaction and driving him into a life of complete isolation. It’s up to you now…
and the ad for ADHD says
We are in possession of your son. We are making him squirm and fidget until he is a detriment to himself and those around him. Ignore this and your kid will pay…
and the ad for bulimia says
We have your daughter. We are forcing her to throw up after every meal she eats. It’s only going to get worse……
You get the picture.The message in this campaign is something like The Invasion of the Normal Child Snatchers, with the various disorders made to be the “aliens”—or crooked bag guys—who have kidnapped the very minds, personalities, selves of children with autism, ADHD, bulimia and other eating disorders, Asperger Syndrome, depression. The “Ransom Note” campaign draws in part on the myth of the changeling, in which a human child was said to have been snatched from its cradle by trolls and replaced with an ugly, deformed, creature. This troll-child, the changeling, is a disabled child. While I don’t think that parents today always knowingly invoke this folk story when they refer to their autistic child as once normal and now “lost,” references to autistic children as an “empty shell,” do suggest this notion of the changeling, of a child stolen away and a deformed being left in her or his place. While these kinds of images and this kind of alarmist rhetoric can certainly strike people directly in the heart and in the gut (all the way to their wallets), they promote a limited understanding of the disorders and disabilities themselves, and provide little comfort with families who, while seeking to help their child make her or his way through the world, know that it’s not as simple as forking over a bag of cash to “get their child back.” Indeed, some of us simply do not think that we have lost a child to autism, or had our child stolen, kidnapped, abducted, or snatched by any dread disorder.
We know we have a child who is a big, huge part of our lives; a child who is not “normal” and is different and struggles with a disability, but a child who is with us. No one took my “real” son with me and left an autistic child in the cradle: Charlie sitting across from me fiddling with his iPod after a day at school is the same Charlie (albeit much bigger) who I once carried close in the crook on one arm.
The campaign is being produced pro bono by BBDO which is…… a public health non-profit? an autism organization? some sort of state or government agency about disabilities?BBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New York. The ads will appear on billboards in December, and then on kiosks and in newspapers, magazines, online, etc.. As I live around New York and we go into the city regularly, I guess I will be reading these ransom notes, and I’ll be wondering if the message on those billboards, though provided for pro bono, is not really pro malo.
My son has had plenty of tough nights and moments, not from vaccinations, and it’s a long long, long long path.
Hope things are all right.
Just this on weekend over 300 tattoo artists mostly from Southern California studios gathered in Pomona’s Fairplex to fire their ink at joined of the everybody’s largest conventions of its kind. In to boot to the clever artists, the Body Taste Expo in Pomona also featured scores of pastime such as tattoo grade contests, vigorous music concerts and MMA fights.
Yes it may seem a (Little harsh) I very much believe most of these comments I have read about it have no clue what it is like to have your normal developing son have his vaccinations and spiral down into another world where there is no more speech and all understanding is lost. There is such a thing as freedom of speech. And also such a thing as insensativity to other peoples pain when you have not lived it or had the opportunity to walk a mile in their shoes. I wish I could send all of you video of the hours of screaming in the night with intense abdominal pain, urinary retention pain, and excrutiating itching and he can’t even tell anyone about it . Non of the specialists or docters have been able to help. I really wonder if that would add some sensativity or a bit if insight or understanding to some of these comments.
1620 days ago
[...] The Invasion of the Normal Child SnatchersMy first post on the NYU Child Study Center’s “Ransom Notes” campaign and the myth of the changeling—little did we know where this would lead to……. [...]
1624 days ago
[...] disorder. The image of these conditions as kidnappers, abductors, criminals—normal child snatchers—who have gotten hold of our children is troubling and, further, harmful and [...]
1628 days ago
[...] a worldwide advertising agency network with headquarters in New York—-though, as I wrote in a previous post, the shock value ads—which are designed to look like an actual ransom note and signed [...]
Melanie, I agree there are some conditions that “take one hostage”, that is, seize a person and change them against their (already established) will. I have dealt with depression and it’s a terrifying feeling to say and do things that you don’t agree with.
However, describing people with neurological disorders or difference as being held hostage is quite another feat. ON my son’s very worst days, when he is unable to explain what is wrong, he doesn’t need a cure, or panic. He needs a translator.
Obviously these awareness campaigns seem designed to fuel stigma and fear, instead of changing attitudes in a positive way.
Empathy, positive attitude, assuming competence, treating all individuals with respect, providing much needed services and supports in a dignified way,
so that individuals and families can feel empowered and part of their local communities instead of isolated and shunned –
why is this concept so hard for the ‘Autism Angels’ (as T&C magazine called them) to understand?
I am glad I do not live in NYC right now, and I used to love the city. It is not “Welcome to Holland”.
I have a close family member with extremely severe treatment-resistant depression, and yes, “hostage to his own mind” is an accurate term to use to describe what’s happened to him since he was a pre-teen. He’s lost years and years of his life. But, scare tactics do nothing to help him or educate others or give relief to my family! (Respite care, anyone??) These tactics perptuate the “boogeyman” perception and make people with disabilities or mental illnesses seem even more like outsiders instead of the much-loved yet frustrating and frustrated family members they really are.
Plus, this sort of campaign (to me) ignores all the hard work that my family member has done to help himself as well as disregards the 10 kinds of hell the family has gone through to help him. Not to mention, all the hard work we (and Bobby) have gone through, too!
I don’t live in NYC, but I’d hate to see these messages in my area…I may have to send a comment to the NYU Med Center just to protest the dangerous precent this campaign seems to be.
Here’s more complete information on the donors mentioned above:
mrecanati@aol.com is Michael Statfeld Recanati.
istatfeld@aol.com is Ira Statfeld Recanati.
This is down right malicious,cruel,discriminatory and not to mention dangerous.This does not help spread awareness or knowledge,instead it injects fear and promotes ignorance.”What we don’t understand we must degrade and defeat” that’s the message this campaign carries.
Thanks and thanks——
Kristina, my apologies for the crossposting, but I just got a comment on my blog that has contact information for some influential people at NYU:
Writing to the center’s people is a waste of time. I learned through a friend who has a son with aspergers and big time NYC donor connections that you can reach the head of the NYU Med Center at robert.grossman@nyumc.org and the two big funders of the asperger program at istatfeld@aol.com and mrecanati@aol.com. You really should reach them to end this offensive campaign.
For those who wish to send e-mails to the people mentioned above, please be courteous in your remarks, as they are not responsible for the content of the ads.
This reminds me of the ill-conceived “Getting the Word Out About Autism” campaign, by Fishtank Brand Advertising for the Autism Society of America. ASA ultimately abandoned it, and I hope NYU Child Study Center will do the same.
1629 days ago
[...] And they do a similar job on ADHD, Asperger Syndrome and Bulimia. Whose Planet is it Anyway? and Autism Vox have both written thoughtful blogs about this campaign. The NAS takes respect for autistic people [...]
I sent them the “ransom note” jypsy linked to.
Maybe we should do a “Hysterical Hyperbolic Professionals Brigade” one too?
I’m not sure how we parents are viewed to, in terms of this “kidnapping” business….
I just fired off my angry and, I hope, articulate protest email. In a way, I feel better, but typing my thoughts also got me all riled up again.
How could anyone think my sweet, playful, Sesame Street-loving boys could be the equivalent of kidnapped??
Im speachless!
“Left untreated, these illnesses can hold children hostage. That’s why we’ve chosen to deliver our message in the form of a ransom note,” says John Osborn, President and CEO of BBDO New York. “We hope the campaign will act as a wake-up call to families, educators and healthcare professionals, and spark dialogue so children can get the help they need.”
John Osborn’s contact information is:
Address:
1285 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10019, UNITED STATES
Telephone Number:
(212) 459-5000
Facsimile Number:
(212) 459-6645
Contact Email:
FIRSTNAME.LASTNAME@BBDO.COM
(this is copied directly from the following site:
http://wwnetwork.bbdo.com/network.aspx?region=4)
And a link to a BusinessWire article which list OTHER participating entities. The list is, frankly, surprising:
“This campaign represents the third pro bono effort by BBDO for the NYU Child Study Center. BBDO earlier gave the organization its tagline “Giving Children Back their Childhood.”
The new campaign will run on 11 billboards in December, 200 kiosks from December through the end of March, and in newspapers, magazines and on-line through the first quarter 2008 and then move into five major markets.
Free kiosk and billboard space was donated by Van Wagner. Other participants in the pro bono campaign include New York Magazine, Newsweek, Parents, Education Update and Mental Health News. The initial launch is expected to net over 700 million impressions over the next four months. ”
Full article here:
http://eon.businesswire.com/releases/child/study/prweb573881.htm