Forget the banking crisis or its upcoming referendum, the spotlight this weekend was on Italy’s sex life. Sparked by a declining birthrate and an ageing population, a campaign was launched to encourage Italian couples to make more babies.
The ill-conceived campaign to counter Italy’s declining birth rate prompted criticism on social media, to such an extent that Italy’s Minister for Health bowed to pressure and pledged to create a new one. The propaganda posted included slogans such as “Beauty has no age, but fertility does”, and several labelling women’s fertility a “common good”. All were designed to inform Italy of its upcoming National Fertility Day, which takes place on the 22nd September – presumably so that Italian women have adequate time to book the day off work, in order to go home and procreate.
As ever, Twitter was the first place many took to to voice their anger, with many drawing parallels to its fascist past.
Back in the Ventennio con il #fertilityday pic.twitter.com/ivV1kASLeG
— Pietro Niro (@niro_pietro) September 1, 2016
The only fertile thing I want to have is my mind. #fertilityday
— Valentina Cantori (@valecantori) August 31, 2016
#FertilityDay shoo! pic.twitter.com/mtoQ506ubW
— eleonora fabrizio (@faberfabel) August 31, 2016
After the backlash, including a statement from Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi who claimed he had no knowledge of the campaign, the Minister of Health Beatrice Lorenzin admitted her mistake on Twitter…
La campagna non è piaciuta? Ne facciamo una nuova. #fertilityday è più di due cartoline, è prevenzione, è la #salute degli italiani.
— Beatrice Lorenzin (@bealorenzin) September 1, 2016
[The campaign is not liked? We will make a new one. Fertility Day is more than two postcards, it is prevention, it is the health of Italians.]
However, campaigns to counter a country’s birth rate are not a new phenomenon – many have been done before, all over the world – to varying degrees of success.
Denmark’s Do It For Denmark campaign
Just two years ago an ad campaign by Danish travel agent Spies Travel encouraged Danes to book a holiday, have sex and make a baby in order to win three years worth of baby supplies. Those who may find procreation a little harder – a gay couple were shown in the ad campaign – were told that “it’s not just about the winning – all the fun is in the participation”…
Georgia’s government dating service
After dealing with a population in decline since 1989, this year Georgia’s government began compiling a database of all single, widowed and divorced people in the country in order to help them find a partner.
Davit Khizanishvili, president of the Demographic Development Fund, said in a statement:
“Single people will be registered across the country, and the census put into a single data base in order to support the family”, in order to avert a demographic “catastrophe”.
Russia’s Sex Day initiative
Back in 2007, faced with an ageing population and a low birth rate, Russia announced September 12th and the National Day of Conception, allowing couples the day off work to have sex and make a baby. It comes exactly nine months before Russia’s National Day, June 12. Women who gave birth on National Day could win a variety of treats, including money and a new fridge.
This seems to be one of the more successful fertility campaigns – in 2007, the Russian birth rate stood at 1.41 births per woman, compared to America’s 2.12. By 2013, it stood at 1.71.