To think that the 'Worth Talking About' Contraception Ads rather miss the point?

[hobbgoblin]

I don't work in sexual health, or even health for that matter but I would hazard a guess that only a very small minority of young couples manage to reproduce accidentally due to knowing nothing about contraception. I tend to think that the vast majority of teenage pregnancies are probably due to low self esteem issues which manifests itself in the inability to resist peer pressure, the need to prove sexual prowess and even the desire to create a person that will provide a focus for one's emotions and a source of unconditional love.

Anyone agree/disagree?

I agree with JV to a degree, but there's also an element among the girls of competition that probably hasn't been there forever. I'm 23 next month, and lost my virginity at 19 - very late, as I thought of it at points while growing up.

Perhaps my mum's isolationist child-rearing techniques weren't entirely without merit, because at my all-girls school (which had and has a wide social intake) there was an, admittedly subtle, real status for those girls who had 'done it', whether it be straight sex or oral. Past fifteen or sixteen, around half the girls I knew seemed to be talking about sex and the boys from the all-male grammar in the school.

Sex is a status symbol which is aimed at on both sides of the gender divide, and yet contraception is still seen as something which you don't talk much about unless it goes wrong. A friend of mine, aged fifteen had a mishap and had to be counselled by another friend about taking the morning after pill, because the taboos meant she didn't dare tell her parents about sex.

And that's the other problem. There's a massive perception among a lot of young people that parents and other adult figures regard teenage sex as a taboo, and contraception more so. Whether that taboo actually exists or not is irrelevant, because the kids still won't talk about it.

And that's why a campaign to promote talking about contraception of all types in a non giggly-silly way is just what we need.

I hate the fact that someone in that ad says"why don't you get an IUD like me?"
Who in the real world calls it an IUD. It's a coil!

I think the adverts are crap because no one would talk like that in real life.

I thought the adverts were primarily about publicising different options of contraception available. They don't seem overly aimed at schoolkids, more at under 25s, I'd say.

They could well be a timely reminder for some people - for example a 21 year old may not have had formal sex education for six years, and may have forgotten about some of the options as they weren't relevant when they were 15. But they might be relevant now.

I agree the adverts could have been executed a little more stylishly, but anything that gets the message across to even some people has got to be good.

By the way, what happened to Femidoms? They were sort of like a big thick condom with a rubber ring at the end that you put up your fanjo before sex. I never used one - seemed far too complicated! Do they still exist?

I always thought the ads were there to show the choice that's available to young people, or people in general.

Not everyone knows wht IUD is, so they can access the web and learn a bit more.

yes they still exist Cuppa

I really dislike this advert because it focuses on female contraception which to my mind just adds goverment backing to the view hald be many young men in their 20's aswell as teens than contraception is the sole responsibility of women and not something they need to be worrying themselves with, where is the slick tv ad pushing for condom use!