We note the following from Barack Obama's speech last night:

"We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country."

And this:

"...we must also admit that programs alone can't replace parents, that government can't turn off the television and make a child do her homework,that fathers must take more responsibility to provide love and guidance to their children."

Note from the blogkeeper: Today's post by Jennifer Drake is in response to yesterday's post by Bill Albert. Do you have a reaction to what Bill said? To Jennifer's rebuttal? Let's hear what you have to say!

So is it the flippancy with which Jenna seems to answer the question about marriage, or our judgment about women and men in this industry that troubles us the most?

I ask because we typically don't hear the same opinions about the Jolie-Pitt family, which is now up to six kids... and zero wedding rings. Perhaps it's our perception that this is a healthy, wealthy (!) family with two successful, financially stable, and responsible parents. Criticism of Ms. Jameson's career choice aside, she has no doubt made a living for herself and carved out her own place in pop culture, much like "Brangelina." She's not married, but her child's father is one of the most successful MMA fighters in the business today. Chances are they're not struggling financially.

This is a thirty-something woman with a couple of marriages and even more life experiences under her belt, who according to some accounts may have badly wanted this pregnancy. Should her (former?) career/reputation automatically exclude her from the possibility of raising a kid, and all of the warm fuzzies that come along with having your own family? Or her marital status for that matter, when to our knowledge she has a supportive partner? As my dad likes to put it, "We all got issues," so I wouldn't count her to be any less ready to be a parent than Angelina "I-wear-a-vial-of-my-husband's-blood-around my-neck" Jolie. I'm just sayin'.

And perhaps we could have found a picture of Jenna that is less...well, just less. Tito Ortiz is much better looking anyway :)

For those still unsure about the power of celebrity culture, please note today's sign of the apocolypse.

Seems porn star Jenna Jameson is in a motherly way. (In fairness, I note parenthetically that news outlets are dutifully reporting that Jenna is a "former" porn actress...whatever.)  Here is what the proud mom-to-be had to say about her relationship with mixed martial arts maestro Tito Ortiz : 

  "I think I'm gonna stay unmarried and just go for the babies!  I'm following in Angelina's footsteps!"

Oh joy.

 

A couple months back I was at Nationals Park (or, as I like to call it, my living room) watching my beloved Washington Nationals lose yet another game. As the grounds crew prepared the field for that night's game, I noted a particularly hairy individual watering the grass. Turns out the hirsute guy was a plant—part of the Geico caveman advertising campaign. After a few minutes watering the lawn as a member of the grounds crew, the caveman was flashed onto the gi-normous television screen hanging in center field and a good laugh was had by all. Human product placement!

Reflect for a moment on all the innovative and engaging campaigns you have seen over the past two years—from insurance, to beer, to fill in your personal favorite here. Now think about all the innovative campaigns you have come across in the oddly-named field of reproductive health. Ready? Go...

Waiting... tick, tick, tick

Give up?

Me too.

The ugly truth is that most campaigns at preventing teen and unplanned pregnancy and encouraging people to take sex, pregnancy, and family formation a bit more seriously are, at best, stuck in neutral (if by neutral you mean approximately 1987). Of course, there may be practical and idealogical reasons for all this; bold social marketing efforts in reproductive health land are frequently dismissed by true believers as disrespectful, preachy, fear-based, shame-filled, or they are simply precluded by media outlets from being aired at all.

All of which brings us to a truly engaging mass media effort underway in India to—in the words of the creators—"make condoms more socially acceptable and improve the image of the condom user as a smart and responsible person." One listen to the condom ring tone and you will understand what I mean by an engaging, innovative and—dare I say it—fun social marketing effort.

See the TV ad, listen to the fabulous-can't-get-enough-of-it ringtone, and learn more about this innovative effort. Now start you own campaign! Remember, no giraffes, rainbows, or unicorns allowed.

It may still feel like summer, but for many schools around the country, class is back in session. For most teens, the start of the new school year brings mixed feelings of excitement and dread. But for many teen mothers, the new school years also represents a whole new set of challenges. We asked our friend Taylor to share his experiences and tell us what's on his mind as he heads back to school.

A recent poll released by the Monmouth University Polling Institute details the views of New Jersey residents on sex and society...in other words, their thoughts on sex ed, the influence of the media, etc.  A lot of the info in the release was unsurprising; what got me poised to blog, however, was one chart that indicated that 82% of "other parents" felt that middle school was the time to begin sex ed.  Here's the chart in all its mathy glory:

Appropriate Level for Sex Education in School
	New Jersey Adults	Parents of Girls age 12-17	Other Parents	Nonparents
High School	93%	94%	93%	93%
Middle School	77%	69%	82%	77%
Elementary School	16%	5%	15%	17%
Never	5%	2%	5%	6%

Source:  Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey Poll.  For more information: Monmouth University Polling Institute, West Long Branch, NJ 07764, www.monmouth.edu/polling

This is fantastic.  The idea that the majority of parents in this community see a place for sex education in schools is a wonderful step in the right direction.  But I have to wonder - how many of that 82% have already broached the subject of sex with their children?  The National Campaign regularly tells parents that the "Talk" isn't a one shot deal...it should be a series of conversations worked into appropriate moments in your child's life.  So while I congratulate the parents of New Jersey for recognizing that kids as young as 5th grade need and want age-appropriate guidance about sex, love, and relationships, I have to wonder - have you been practicing what you preach?

Get some great tips for talking to your kids in our Parents Portal. 

Get the polling data here.

For sports fans around the world, there are just a couple days left to catch the 2008 Summer Olympics on TV. But for the competitors who made the trek to Beijing, that means just a few more days to score—and I don't just mean on the field (or in the pool or on the court).

Acknowledging that sexual activity is a likely byproduct of housing over 10,000 world class athletes in the same village, Olympic officials started distributing condoms in 1992. While the condoms are generally supplied in the name of HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, I'm guessing a few unplanned pregnancies have also been avoided thanks to their availability.

In addition to the 100,000 condoms made available to athletes during the current games, Beijing health authorities have also provided local hotels with 400,000 free condoms. Of course, for those not receiving gratis prophylactics, they are always available for purchase and a Chinese condom company, Elasun, launched an Olympic-themed marketing campaign this summer to keep condoms in everyone's consciousness.

Spider-Man's most infamous and dangerous enemies are generally considered to be the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus and Venom.  Like Spider-Man, the majority of these villains' powers originate with scientific accidents or the misuse of scientific technology, and they tend to have animal-themed costumes or powers.  Spider-Man, somewhat of a lone wolf, has on occasion teamed up with other spandex-clad heroes, such as Daredevil, the Black Cat, and the Avengers to battle the forces of evil in the Marvel Universe.

One of my colleagues recently brought to work what I consider to be the greatest Spider-Man team-up of all time.  In 1976, Marvel Comics and Planned Parenthood collaborated on a Spider-Man special on teen pregnancy. The villain, Prodigy, is an alien who wants teenagers to crank out babies so he can steal them and take them back to his home planet (Intellectia, of course!) for slave labor. To further his plans, the villain launches a campaign of misinformation to lull teenagers into having wanton unprotected sex.  Devious!!!

Of course, in the end Spider-Man hitches a ride on a helicopter, cracks the skulls of the Prodigy's goons, and exposes the Prodigy and his nefarious plan.  The day is saved and Spider-Man and Planned Parenthood teach everyone a good lesson about not taking sex advice from interstellar villains with dreams of galactic dominance.

The above plot summary just can't do this thing justice, so I found the entire issue on Andrew Farago's LiveJournal page. And if you really need to get your own copy, there may still be a few available on EBay.  Happy ready, True Believers!

I heard this week that a scrappy little nonprofit called Dads and Daughters is closing its doors after a decade of great work.  Their reason for closing is funding problems - not surprising in this tough economy - but still sad and worthy of a mention here.  The mission of this group has been to promote the importance of father-daughter relationships, both in the real world and in the media.  After all, dads are the first men to love us, to value us, to tell us in a million ways that we are worthy, smart, important, and safe.  Talk about building blocks for the future! 

It makes me so mad, and so scared, that a group like this - devoted to committed parenting, girl empowerment, and healthy relationships - can't survive, while the creepy purity ball culture continues to pack the banquet halls of America.  Why is it easier to find support for virginity pledges to dad (that amount to little more than contracts of ownership over teen girls' bodies) than to find support for smart, constructive, relationship-building work that truly values the role of fathers in girls' lives? 

Check out their 10 tips for Dads of Daughters.  Good stuff. 

In the today's installment of the Gloucester Pregnancy Pact debacle (you thought it was over?  HA), Joseph Sullivan resigns as principal of Gloucester High School.  In his resignation letter, Sullivan complains that:

the mayor held a press conference and publicly slandered my reputation, my integrity and my intelligence. Since then neither the superintendent nor any member of the School Committee has publicly come to my defense.

Evidently, we have one more adult who has focused their attention on the absolute WRONG part of the Gloucester story...this isn't about a pact or a media circus or Principal "My Name Is Mud."  It's about seventeen pregnant teenagers.  It's about a school that is in the midst of a real crisis.  And, most importantly, it's about priorities - these girls were all pregnant before Time magazine made them famous.  So why on earth didn't we care until their story was turned into tabloid fodder? 

Read all of Sullivan's resignation letter here for your full daily allowance of woe-is-me-ness.  Unfortunately you won't read anything about the teens themselves...but what do you expect?  They're more or less bit characters at this point.

UPDATE: it seems that the resignation letter on the Gloucester Times website has been password protected...we'll keep looking for a readable copy and repost when available. 

 

The increase in the teen birth rate, Jamie Lynn Spears, the Gloucester un-pact, and---who knows, the performance of Michael Phelps in the Olympics---have all elicited a serious round of media finger-pointing.  You know the argument; the media is providing a heavy coat of coarse to teen culture and they are to blame for our increasingly sexualized culture.

Fair?  Of course not. 

Read what Sarah Brown thinks about all this in an op-ed that appeared in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and check out the accompanying editorial.

 

 

The great, creative, accomplished, and productive folks at the South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy have some new videos to check out.  Please do so...

We are thrilled to announce the winners of the "What's Your Relationship Reality?" Video Mash-Up Contest, which was co-sponsored by The National Campaign's StayTeen.org and the Dibble Institute. We received some great video entries shot by teens from all around the country on webcams, cell phones, and video cameras, which they then remixed using our StayTV video mash-up tool.

We were very impressed with the quality of all of the submissions, but TWO of them stood out from the rest of the pack. The winners of the first ever Stay Teen video contest are:

	Just the Way I Am (Submitted by Kelly B. from Midlothian, IL) - This video shows Kelly and her boyfriend supporting one another and cheering each other on as they both shave their heads to support the St. Baldrick's Foundation, an organization dedicated to raising awareness and funds for children's cancer research.
	Relationship Reality (Submitted by Kevin P. from Jackson, TN) - This clever submission includes a montage of images that focus on different types of healthy relationships intermingled with words like respect, responsibility, rely, recognize, and more.

Congratulations to Kelly and Kevin on their outstanding videos and thanks to all of the teens who took the time to enter a video in the contest. For more information about the contest and to watch the winning videos, please visit our Contest Winner page at StayTeen.org.

I hear that NBC's "Baby Borrowers" is one of the biggest summer shows EVER. I have watched all the episodes now, each several times. I love it. Truly, madly deeply. I started watching because I had to (the Campaign developed discussion guides for the show though we had nothing to do with its basic premise or taping), but I am now a flat-out convert.

Tonight, NBC is airing a special follow up about the show, and because I am in this special (please do NOT watch my segment unless you promise to tell me that I looked 32....), I have now had extensive contact not only with the teen couples but also the "lender" parents and the show's wonderful creator, Richard McKerrow. Based on hours with all these people and others, I am more convinced than ever that this program is a force for good. It reveals in living color why teens are best advised to postpone parenthood—and it does so without being preachy or annoying. In particular, it shows how the stress of babies is overwhelms fragile teens relationships.

Shocking news bulletin: None of the couples are still together....

I also think that all the whining about how traumatic the experience of being "lent" was to the babies is not credible. Think babysitters. Think day care centers. Think, we went to NYC for the weekend but my sister took care of Baby Walter.... ALL the lender parents would do it again in a heartbeat.

I must also report that (1) there was more food backstage for the taping of this show that I saw at the last three weddings I attended combined, and (2) l loved the "hair and make-up" gig. I think they took 5 years off me...no small feat.

9 pm in the East. NBC. Tonight.

infoMania, a Current TV show that recaps each week's glut of online, print, and televised media, features a recurring segment written by and starring the brilliant Sarah Haskins. The Target Women series lampoons how media and marketing attempt to reach women. Having already taken on suffrage, yogurt, and botox, Haskins's most recent episode, Target Women: Birth Control, calls into question why ads for hormonal BC are all about period control and managing PMS symptoms and never about sex or preventing pregnancy.

Enjoy the video (and all of the other Target Women clips) and let us know what you think commercials about contraception should be saying.

Terrifically important new research from our friends at the Guttmacher Institute on unplanned pregnancy.  From the press release:

"Publicly funded family planning clinics provide contraceptive services to approximately seven million women each year. Without these services, the annual number of unintended pregnancies and abortions in the United States would be almost 50% higher. In other words, 1.4 million unintended pregnancies and 600,000 abortions are averted each year because of these services... 

In addition to the clear benefits for individual women and their families in helping them avoid the pregnancies they do not want and plan the pregnancies they do, the analysis finds that these services save $4.3 billion in public funds. Nationally, for every $1.00 spent to provide services in the nationwide network of publicly funded family planning clinics, $4.02 in Medicaid expenses on births are averted."

Read the full report here and press release here.

As you may or may not know, the progress in teen pregnancy prevention in this country has been embarrassingly uneven. While about one-third of all teen girls will become pregnant before age 20, this figure jumps significantly for minority girls--51% of African-American girls and 53% of Latinas will have at least one pregnancy during their teen years. Rates for Native American teen births are also disproportionately high.

You read it right--some minority youth are more likely than not to become pregnant during their teen years. We thought this was important enough to hold a Congressional briefing on the topic a couple of weeks ago.

These stats made our friends' jaws drop over at the The Progressive Policy Institute--rightly so. And while they clearly have shown their hand as far as their preference for the Prez (not surprisingly, considering their affiliation with the Democratic Leadership Committee), this is an issue that all Americans have to care about, regardless of where your fall on the red-purple-blue spectrum.

My colleagues and I won't engage in political debates, but the policy question is quite valid: How will our elected leaders address the staggering disparities among minority youth, and what's the best way to make progress on teen pregnancy prevention in communities of color? Discuss.