Italy’s Low Birthrate: Government’s Ad Campaign Encouraging Baby-Making Backfires Due To Threatening Message

Italy has been experiencing a decline in birthrate, thus placing its economy in jeopardy. This is why the Italian Ministry of Health released a Fertility Day ad campaign designed to encourage couples to go into baby-making mode, but the move backfired on social media and was criticized by many.

Italy's Fertility Day falls on Sept. 22. The campaign's vaguely menacing posters bear the words, "Beauty has no age limit. Fertility does," while a woman holding an hourglass is also seen. Another poster targeting men displays this caption: "Don't let your sperm go up in smoke," at the same time as showing a man with a half-burned cigarette, The Washington Post reported.

Plenty of social media users were irked with the campaign posters. On Twitter, annoyed users used the #FertilityDay hashtag to complain about the initiative, saying that it was "offensive, sexist, and dangerous." With such a negative social media reaction, the campaign founders did an about-turn, taking down the campaign posters, and removing their website (fertilityday2016.it), according to the New York Post.

Another poster of the campaign reads: "Young parents. The best way to be creative." Giulia Blasi, a writer for the website Medium, said there are better methods to practice creativity instead of making babies you can't afford and support.

Italy currently has a 42 percent unemployment rate for its residents aged between 15 and 24. Blasi added that the European country should focus on making it easier and more manageable for women to juggle motherhood and work at the same time.

Lower wages for women and inadequate day care are said to be the reasons behind Italy's low birthrate. There is a fertility rate of 1.35 children per woman in Italy, which is lower than the European Union's average of 1.6.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, said a nation's stable population needs a fertility rate of 2.1, Quartz revealed. Rates below that spell financial and economic trouble for countries with aging populations, substantial social services, and unchanging economies. Italy is among those countries grappling with these factors.

Other low-birth countries were more successful in their efforts to encourage couples to have more babies. Denmark, for instance, offered vacations and prizes to inspire couples to procreate. Schoolchildren in the country are also being taught about the benefits of having babies.

Denmark has a shockingly low birthrate of 10 babies every 1,000 residents in 2013. The efforts were not futile, with the country seeing small increases in births nine months after the initiatives.