“Got Insurance?” and the offensive targeting of young people

Facebook is abuzz with these new “got insurance?” ads, run by two collaborating non-profits in Colorado. Surely, people wonder, these ads have to be a joke? At best they’re hokey and laughable. Many of those which pertain to the young adult crowd are replete with immature language and bad grammar (the website is called doyougotinsurance.com). What’s worse though is that they seek to appeal to such a demographic through drinking and birth control.

According to reporting from TheBlaze, even the pro-abortion group, Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado perceived the ad as a parody and expressed offense at “slut shaming.”

TheBlaze also links to a Business Insider piece which includes a statement from Adam Fox, Director of Strategic Engagement for the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, which is one of the groups responsible for the ads:

“We wanted to come up with a campaign that would attract attention and inject a bit of humor, and try to approach educating people about health insurance a little bit differently,” he said. “It was really just brainstorming, ‘OK, what are some of those risky activities we could work with that would tie it all together?’”

Again, the ads are laughable, but not in a good way. Adam Fox and his group may have wanted to use humor in their ad campaign, but they certainly went about it in the wrong way. When a Planned Parenthood group, which should be a big supporter, initially thinks the ad is a mockery of what they stand for, something may have gone too far.

Perhaps the ad receiving the most attention is the “Let’s Get Physical” one. There are other problematic ones which portray young people in a limited and negative light, which are supposed to invite them in to ObamaCare.

The ads pertaining to drinking include the “Brosurance” ad, “Keg ER,”  and “Get Your Shots.” Granted, while it is not a secret that college students drink, doing so excessively and if underage is not a matter to take lightly with humor. In doing so, the ads essentially promote binge drink, so long as you have health care.

On the Concerned Women for America  LAC Facebook page, in addition to sharing the “Let’s Get Physical Ad” and commentary on the ad campaign from theStir, there is also a statement from Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, the Chairperson of the Board of Directors for the Institute on Religion & Democracy. Dr. Crouse wrote:

“What’s with state-sanctioned, corporate sponsored encouragement for young people to destroy themselves and their futures — there is an STD epidemic (20 million NEW cases every year in the 15-25 bracket) and binge drinking is sending dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of teens to the hospital with alcohol poisoning — some to their deaths, not to mention the assaults, depression, suicide and wasted years…”

In addition to the “Let’s Get Physical,” ad, there is another ad on birth control, titled “Hey Girl 1.” The ad features a well-dressed, excited young woman who stands next to a cutout of Ryan Gosling which says he is excited about getting to know her, presumably so she can have sex with him as she is “excited about easy access to birth control.”

Although the ads may attempt to take a liberating, pro-woman stance, they are actually offensive to women, for a multitude of reasons. From a physical health perspective, the ads not only encourage sex, but fail to mention any health problems associated with birth control and don’t do enough to warn about Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs).  Only one ad, “Let’s Get Physical,” mentions that birth control pills do not protect against STDs, though this is in the fine print section, as indicated in the main part of the ad with an asterisk. Curiously enough, it also mentions that “common sense” serves as protection. Perhaps one should use “common sense” in recognizing that there is a multitude of reasons for deciding whether or not to have sex with someone.

Both of the ads assume that one of the factors, if not the only factor, and at the least the primary factor, as to if a woman is going to have sex with a man is if she has birth control, and birth control which is covered by someone else. Only one of the ad makes a move to fully protect men and women physically, and barely at that. But neither of them delve into the emotional health aspects of having what is likely to be an encounter of casual sex, as the young people in the ads have only just met each other.

It is also curious and worth noting that while the ads do not call the women themselves this, two of the ads do use the term “easy.” The first “Hey Girl” ad mentions “easy access to birth control.” The “Let’s Get Physical” ad not only refers to the birth control as easy, but the guy she is planning on having sex. That’s offensive to men as well actually, as it assumes that this man and many others like him are so eager and ready for casual sex, or that they are at least perceived this way. For a woman to be considered “easy” means that she is also likely regarded as a “slut” or a “whore.’ And with how the women are portrayed in these ads, as being so excited and jumping into having sex, simply because they have birth control coverage now, it is not hard to see the concern in such ad campaigns furthering a regard of women as easy.

Young women are better than these ads. Even if one were to engage in casual sex and have no problem doing so, there are other factors involved besides having someone else covering your birth control. This is not to engage in so-called slut-shaming, but rather speaking to both the physical and emotional health of men and women. Young men are better than these ads too; they do not need to be easy and they do not need to live up to how these ads perceive them as so eager for any kind of sex.

The campaign perhaps most of all demeans young people by assuming, through these ads, that they are so focused on sex. Young people are focused on other issues though, and do have more pressing concerns. Not only do young people need not be so focused on who is paying for their birth control, but they can stand to benefit from personal responsibility. Young men and women who know the importance of personal responsibility can and should be able to balance affording their sex life along with their other costs. For almost fifty years,birth control access has neither been illegal nor impossible before the U.S. Health & Human Services (HHS) Mandate required that employers cover birth control, some of them against their religious beliefs Proponents of ObamaCare should stop acting like it was illegal or impossible to access, and depending on lies to feed their so-called “War on Women.”

Dr. Crouse also refers to how birth control and a focus on sexuality affects the lives of young people:

“…While we claim to love children and give them every material thing they could possibly want, we deny them the chance for meaningful, fulfilling lives. While we claim we want to empower women, we treat them as though they are ignorant, non-thinking fools and/or sex objects. While we claim we want our boys to become men, we emasculate them at every turn…”

She further comments as to how such a focus has affected our culture, our faith, and our values:

“…While we glorify all sorts of strange, weird, off the wall “spiritual” ideas, we denigrate and poke fun at Judeo-Christian values and the people who live by those tenets of faith. I cannot stand to see what our culture has become… and that is the training ground for the future of today’s youth…”

There is already enough wrong with ObamaCare. But for those who do support it, they do not need to do so at the expense of selling short the potential of so many young people. Young people are so much more than partying, getting drunk and engaging in casual sex without any other cares in the world. They are above being defined and controlled by how such ads portray them, supposedly for the sake of “humor”. The ad campaign is not funny, and it is offensive. At least for these groups, it shows just how far some are willing to go to pledge full allegiance to ObamaCare, taking the young generation down with them, all the while feeding the lie that it is what it is best for them.