Teen parenting is often a very controversial topic to be discussed. There are facts and statistics that have been found to back up the negative connotations that teen parenting is commonly coupled with. However, one of the main reasons that teen parenting is looked down upon by many people is due to their beliefs and values, or the culture they were raised on or associate with. According to Hofstede, a social psychologist, culture is essentially a collective mental programming of people in an environment. Going off of this, many people frown upon teen parenting merely because they were raised to agree with the beliefs and morals of those who surround them and belong to the same culture as theirs.
Teen parenting is something that happens more often than not, especially in this generation and the ones to come. There are many cases in which teen parenting isn't successful, but there are also many times in which teen parenting can be just as successful as adult parenting. This advertisement is criticizing those who become pregnant at a young age and raise children on their own. I do understand that teen parenting is ten times harder than normal and isn't necessarily ideal for the child. And while I understand that this advertisement might be trying to prevent teen pregnancy and recruit more teen girls and teen boys to use contraceptives and practice being safe, I believe that they could have communicated the message in a different manner than they did in these ads. For instance, they could have refrained from using such negativity while still getting the same message across. By saying "Honestly mom...chances are he won't stay with you", they're not only discriminating against the father, but simultaneously, and possibly unconsciously, discriminating against the mother. They're implying that all teens who experience accidental pregnancies do so because they are incompetent and aware of the consequences of unsafe sex but do not take the initiative to prevent it.
Like I stated earlier however, these negative implications have been set in place because of people's culture/the beliefs and morals people have been surrounded with all their lives. Hofstede states that culture is a number of people conditioned by the same education/and or life experience. This definition of culture also supports my claim that one of the biggest reasons teen pregnancy and teen parenting is looked down upon is merely because of how certain groups of people have been raised, educated or conditioned. A lot of times, people have no personal/life experience with teen pregnancy, however, they discriminate against it and associate it with adverse thoughts. Culture is something that influences a lot of the ideas we have as humans and majority of the decisions we make.
Overall, these ads, in my opinion, make the message of teen pregnancy extremely negative instead of informative. There could have been different facts and statistics informing teens of the consequences of not using contraceptives. Although teen pregnancy does indeed have it's downfalls and unfavorable perceptions, there are plenty of great and beautiful experiences that can result from pregnancies no matter the age of the parents. Regardless of the hard times that arise from teen pregnancies, these advertisements should have aimed to inform the audience instead of essentially scare them and place their beliefs and morals upon their audience. I believe that if the message was communicated in a different way, it would thus be received in a different way. To me, marketing is all about thinking about the audience and what they'll respond positively to. It shouldn't be about condemning those who do experience accidental or surprising pregnancies. It should inform teens that when accidents happen, there are things that can be done to take proactive action. Advertisements should refrain from incorporating personal beliefs into their message. It should remain informational and revealing of consequences or benefits instead of being merely astute about a certain idea or topic.
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