What's the best way to prevent teen pregnancy? Preventing all teens from having sex is pretty much impossible, so the Chicago Department of Public Health is stirring controversy with a rather unusual idea: billboards with shocking photos of pregnant teen boys, like the one here and others you can see below.
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The photos feature pregnant boys with the tagline, "Unexpected? Most teen pregnancies are." They're already all over public transportation in Chicago. As mind-boggling as the photos are, though, I'm not sure if this campaign will really work.
First of all, in some of the photos, it just looks like the boys have a huge beer belly and not like they're pregnant. Second, I feel like to teens, these photos are simply going to provide a good laugh, and not really change their attitudes.
It's not that I think it's a completely hairbrained idea–in fact, I applaud the efforts of this campaign and their attempt to make teen boys just as responsible for teen pregnancies as girls–but I don't think that the message that's conveyed is the desired one. In other words, I'm sure the billboards will shock people and may even start discussions about the alarming number of teen pregnancies in this country. But these discussions will probably be between adults, not the kids who need to understand the eye-opening message these ads are trying to get across to them.
The billboards and images started being posted throughout Chicago and its suburbs near schools with particularly high rates of teen pregnancies in mid-May. According to reports, a similar campaign in Milwaukee, Wisconsin has been very successful. I hope Chicago sees the same results.
Image via beyoubehealthy.org
Pregnant teen boys
Just one of the shocking images.
Shocking pictures
Chicago's Department of Public Health felt like it had to do something drastic.
Unexpected?
The images themselves are an unexpected twist on the usual anti-teen pregnancy campaigns.
