I can't express how offended I am by the Action for Children advert "Dan".
I spend all the time now worrying that either of my two Aspie lads will see it, and Josh keeps an eye out for me and knows that if he sees it, he must turn over if the others are around.
How dare they suggest that our beautiful children are monsters. They seem to think they need modifying to make them "normal" - wasn't it Hitler who thought something like that as well?
It is sickening. Putting this out day after day on national television, being beamed into every home around the country - as if people on the spectrum don't already have to cope with enough abuse, prejudice, misunderstanding and daily outrage. The fact that this is coming from a "children's charity" claiming to want to protect kids, is ... well... I just can't find the right word.
I found this video today, and thought that it got the point across beautifully.
Email address for where to complain about the advert is shown at the end of the video.
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6 comments:
Thanks for blogging on this - I'll mention it in tonight's post on the The New Republic
Best Wishes,
Socrates.
Thanks.
You're already on the Facebook page aren't you?
http://en-gb.facebook.com/group.php?gid=47154931157
I'm disgusted every time I see this on TV, it's been few times now. I ache for the youngsters who will worry about how they are perceived by their families on watching it.
I'm ranting about the same thing, its horrible :0(
Action for Children has made another ad that parents with MS find almost as horrifying: I haven't seen it (I'm in the US, so they don't have those ads here), but apparently it features a young girl who has to take care of her Mom because her Mom has MS. And Action for Children helps her. Parents are incensed because it implies that children automatically become carers for disabled parents (when they don't, or shouldn't have to).
The Facebook group focused on the MS parent ad is at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=51200447470
I suggest that the campaigns against both ads (the autism ad and the MS parent ad) would be more effective if they were to work in tandem. I also suggest that letters should focus NOT ONLY on removing the two offensive ads but ALSO on urging Action for Children to consult more closely with disability groups in the future for ALL relevant ads.
I noticed both those ads, I'm glad you're ranting about it. The 'Dan' one is particularly horrid - implying in the first place that aspergers syndrome issues are something which OUGHT to be 'fixed' or eradicated in some bizarre way, and secondly that they actually can be. I agree that the message is oversimplified and bound to be potentially upsetting. Grr.
Well in regards to Hitler, I find the ways some of the "curbies" behave would really have impressed him.
Imagine if Hitler could've convinced the Jewish people, that they were sick and they needed to be cured.
I'm Jewish, and I've seen striking similarities between this "campaign" and what Hitler did myself. Taking a boy, and making him tell the world that he's a monster, so they can control him. I don't know if it was me, but didn't "Dan" sound like he was on the verge of tears doing that ad?
Well Action for Children doesn't care, if it upsets a child when they force him to believe he's a monster and only hurts others. They don't care if he cries himself to sleep that night, thinking how the world would be a better place without him. This ad is no different than the type of propaganda that was spread about Gay and Lesbian people, during the height of the anti-Gay movement.
You know, that Gay people needed to be cured, and how they were poisoning the world with their exsistance. Ah but nobody wants to have to recognize they're only recycling the same hate, from the past.
Then they might have to realize they themselves are the monster, and they are eating Dan alive. Chewing him up and telling him he's a horrible person and he deserves to be eaten, until he begs to be swallowed and digested so he won't be around anymore to be a burden.
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