A new ad in Milwaukee bus shelters has a lot of people (or at least a lot of bloggers) talking about teen pregnancy. This ad isn't offensive so much as just gross--no one will dispute that babies do in fact produce dirty diapers--but it's clearly "edgy" enough to get the public's attention.

A post on AdFreak about the ad, which compares it to a viral video created with a similar purpose this past May (AdFreak deemed the diaper poster less "hard-hitting" than the video) got me thinking about controversial awareness-raising strategies for complex issues (like, oh, say...teen and unplanned pregnancy, for example).

When I started working at The National Campaign, I was myself offended by a National Campaign ad campaign--dubbed the "Labels" ads--which superimposed negative words on top of portraits of teens, accompanied in very small print by a more neutral message about the challenges of teen pregnancy and parenthood.

Back in December, The National Campaign and CosmoGirl.com released the results from a survey on the cultural phenomenon that has come to be described as...gulp...sexting.

Friends, we continue to be surprised by—and dine out on—the continued and overwhelming response the survey has received. The anecdotal reports we have all heard about teens and young adults electronically sending and posting nude images/videos of themselves—anecdotal reports that now have some quantitative data to back them up—have become the "our culture is dying" lament dejour.

Check out this clever campaign on "safe texting" that starts today in Milwaukee.  The bus shelter ads are funded by United Way of Greater Milwaukee, who, as we've noted before, are spearheading efforts to bring down the teen pregnancy and birth rates in their community. 

Now I hate to play favorites, but this is news that I absolutely have to share.

You might remember me raving about cheeseheads a couple of months ago.  Just to recap, people all over Milwaukee have made teen pregnancy prevention a priority, from the local newspaper to business leaders and dozens of non-profits.

The Teen Pregnancy Oversight Committee, with leadership from the United Way of Greater Milwaukee who is spearheading this effort, the Milwaukee City Health Department, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Urban Population Health, set a goal to reduce teen births in the city among 15- to 17-year-olds by 46 percent by 2015.

This week, Mayor Tom Barrett and Health Commissioner Bevan Baker reported the city's stunning first step toward this goal:  the teen birth rate in Milwaukee declined 10% between 2006 and 2007. That's from about 55 births per 1,000 teens to 50 per 1,000, the lowest rate since 1979.

My new favorite city has a long way to go to reach its 2015 goal, but for now this honorary cheesehead is basking in Milwaukee's success.

Read more about the decline and more about the United Way initiative.  Any thoughts about how Wisconsinites achieved this success?  Is your city seeing similar results?  Dying to tell us about your state or community's efforts?  Please share and discuss.

I had the privilege of spending the last couple of days in Milwaukee and Madison, WI where some extraordinary teen pregnancy prevention efforts are underway.  First, we celebrated with Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin  at its annual luncheon where our CEO Sarah Brown gave a rousing address about communicating the basics on relationships, sex, and childbearing with our kids.  PPWI operates 31 family planning and education centers throughout the state, many of which help parents and teens communicate about all the aforementioned icky stuff.

We also spent some time with the talented folks at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel whose editorial board has named teen pregnancy as one of its top agenda items for 2008.  Talk about raising the level of public discourse.  What better way to make people face the facts than to make them swallow the truth with their morning coffee?  And here's the truth:  In Milwaukee, 2,051 teens gave birth in 2006, both the teen pregnancy and teen birth rates increased between 2005 and 2006, and the city's teen birth rate is almost twice the national rate.  There is much work to do.

We also met the good people who are running Milwaukee's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative.  The local United Way is spearheading the efforts to reduce the city's teen pregnancy rate by 46 percent by 2015.  Not 45 percent.  Not 50.  46 percent.  The precision tells you they're for real.

I might have been in Milwaukee, but the idea of an entire city working together on a common goal made it feel more like Mayberry...and that's a good thing.  They mayor is on board, the health commissioner co-chairs the city-wide oversight committee on teen pregnancy prevention with the publisher of the local paper, and several non-profit and community organizations are working to fund and put on effective programs that help youth avoid too early pregnancy and childbearing.  I commend any community that can bring people together to tackle their common concerns - especially when it's one as tough and important as this one.