When you realize your culture is dying
Europe has an even lower population replacement rate than the U.S., and some countries are frankly dying out as the historical culture they have always been with their traditional identity and heritage.
Concerned citizens in Germany are trying to warn their fellow countrymen, and change the cultural mindset at the same time. They’re sending the message through a creative ad campaign.
The 2007 campaign, “Du bist Deutschland” (You are Germany), which was paid for by private businesses and promoted as a public service by media and sports stars, consisted of a two-minute television and three print ads, all of which were intended to promote the idea of having children to the child-starved European nation.
Recently the TV ad’s German voice-over was supplemented with subtitles in English and in Spanish and then posted to YouTube.
By way of the ads, the sponsors of the campaign intended to generate a lively public debate on the country’s disastrously low birth rate, “with the ultimate objective of restoring the idea of having children as a cherished matter of course.”
Shows how far society has drifted from that fundamental core of civilization. The ads do it well.
One print ad features a photo of a child with Down syndrome and the text…”You teach us something new every day: how to get your little sister to laugh in no time. How to beat Daddy hands down in the 100 metres freestyle. Or how to counter people’s disapproving looks with a simple smile. We’re slowly starting to see the world with your eyes. And suddenly it all makes sense.”
It’s an effort to restore moral order not just in society, but in the hearts and minds that collectively make a nation.
The video’s voiceover says, “You show us that it is never the wrong time to receive you. You have mother and father, and you need the whole country to grow happily. You are not alone. You are our most valuable task.”
Amen to that.
