Imagine the shock of the parents in Eugene, Oregon, who brought their children to a community parade. In addition to marching bands, floats, and clowns, this year’s Eugene Celebration parade, held September 16th, included Planned Parenthood’s Condom King and Queen, giant birth control pills, a bevy of humans dressed as sperm chasing others dressed as eggs, and a person dressed as a cartoon character named Joe Sperm. Joe Sperm is Planned Parenthood’s newest ad campaign to promote free contraceptive supplies and services to low-income individuals and families.
“The Joe Sperm ad campaign won the 1999 National Planned Parenthood Award for marketing,” said Diane Duke, associate executive director with Planned Parenthood Health Services of Southwestern Oregon. “Various Planned Parenthood affiliates are free to use it.”
In addition to public appearances by Joe Sperm, the campaign includes radio and television commercials and advertisements on city buses until the end of the year.
The campaign is the result of a $15 million federal- and state-funded Family Planning Expansion Project. Planned Parenthood’s hope is that it will attract the attention of those an earlier program might have missed.
That Planned Parenthood would stoop to using a cartoon character to sell its products and services is nothing short of sick. But then again, we shouldn’t be surprised by anything Planned Parenthood does these days. After all, Ms. Beth Andrus, of the ACLU, is quoted as saying, “The ACLU and Planned Parenthood share the same goal — to ensure free speech when that speech is about reproduction.” But who decides whether such speech, or Joe Sperm, is indecent or offensive? Planned Parenthood has yanked that decision from parents’ hands and evidently cares little about who gets hurt along the way.
As demonstrated by Joe Sperm, Planned Parenthood apparently has the right to say anything it wants, wherever it wants, to anyone it wants, regardless of the age of the potential audience. The right to free speech and the right to reproductive freedom apparently trump the right of parents to protect their children’s modesty and innocence. Planned Parenthood is forcing the issue of sexuality upon children at younger and younger ages, thus usurping the right of the parents to choose the appropriate time to discuss sexuality with them.
This is curious given that the same type of ad campaign by R.J. Reynolds promoting tobacco was shut down in the courts.
What is a parent to do? Mangini v. R.J. Reynolds — the multi-million dollar court case to prevent R.J. Reynolds from using Joe Camel in its advertising — offers some interesting parallels.
• R.J. Reynolds was desperate to find a way to compete with Marlboro for the 14-24 year-old market. Planned Parenthood is desperate to spend $13 million in federal funds to promote their services.
• R.J. Reynolds sought to attract minors because 90 percent of all smokers begin by age 18. Planned Parenthood wants to attract younger and younger clients as well, because a majority of children are having their first sexual experience by age 12-14.
• The cartoon nature of the Joe Camel ads made that campaign particularly appealing to children. Joe Sperm is aimed at precisely the same demographic.
• RJR fully intended for its campaign to target a very young audience. Planned Parenthood is fully aware of the same, championing the belief that it is good to talk to children as young as five and six about sex.
• 7th and 8th grade students reported that Joe Camel had the attributes of being “cool” and being “fun,” and represented their ideal self-image. Joe Sperm is also being perceived as “cool” and “fun.” What sort of behavior can we expect this character to promote?
The Joe Camel campaign proved highly effective for R.J. Reynolds. The company’s revenues from teenagers increased from $6 million to $476 million during Joe Camel’s life.
But in the end, Janet C. Mangini had her day in court, because the California Supreme Court found the targeting of minors oppressive and unscrupulous. The court said such advertising “exploits minors by luring them into unhealthy and potentially life-threatening addiction before they have achieved the maturity necessary to make an informed decision whether to take up smoking despite its health risks.”
If these minors were too immature to understand the health risks associated with smoking, how can they possibly understand the health risks associated with sexual behavior? Planned Parenthood is using Joe Sperm to lure the very same audience into its own unhealthy and life-threatening behaviors through the promotion of contraception and abortion.
Diane Duke of Planned Parenthood disagrees with the comparison between Joe Camel and Joe Sperm. “We promote healthy choices, decision-making and behavior,” she said.
Planned Parenthood performs over 167,000 surgical abortions annually. Beyond that, the behavior the organization promotes often leads to sexually transmitted diseases, abortion, serious post-abortion problems, various forms of cancer, and even AIDS. So much for “healthy choices.”
It's parents, not Planned Parenthood, who have the duty and the right to be the first and main teachers of their children. There is no substitute for parents teaching the true meaning of human sexuality to their children.
Let's protect our children's innocence from these perverted government-funded attacks.
