Campaign on Childhood Mental Illness Succeeds at Being Provocative - New York University Child Study Center

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foto: The campaign began in magazines as well as on kiosks and

billboards around New York City. New York University Child Study Center

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December 14, 2007

Campaign on Childhood Mental Illness Succeeds at Being Provocative

By JOANNE KAUFMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/business/media/14adco.html

We have your son. We will make sure he will no longer be able to care

for himself or interact socially as long as he lives.

--- Autism

SO reads one of the six " ransom notes " that make up a provocative public

service campaign introduced this week by the New York University Child

Study Center to raise awareness of what Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz, the

center's founder and director, called " the silent public health epidemic

of children's mental illness. "

Produced pro bono by BBDO, an Omnicom agency that worked on two previous

campaigns for the Child Study Center, the campaign features scrawled and

typed communiqués as well as simulations of classic ransom notes,

composed of words clipped from a newspaper.

In addition to autism, there are ominous threats concerning depression,

obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder,

Asperger's syndrome and bulimia. The campaign's overarching theme is

that 12 million children " are held hostage by a psychiatric disorder. "

The public service announcements began running this week in New York

magazine and Newsweek as well as on kiosks, billboards and construction

sites around New York City.

" Children's mental disorders are truly the last great public health

problem that has been left unaddressed, " said Dr. Koplewicz, adding:

" It's like with AIDS. Everyone needs to be concerned and informed. "

In some quarters, however, the campaign has raised hackles as much as

awareness. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network, a national grass-roots

organization of children and adults, is circulating a petition asking

the Child Study Center to end the campaign.

a Chew, founder of the blog Autism Vox, which has a link to the

petition, says that " the reaction has been mostly outrage from parents

of special-needs children, autistic adults, teachers, disability rights

advocates and mental health professionals. "

" It's rallied them around one issue, and these aren't people who

normally agree about treating autism, " said Ms. Chew, who lives in

Bernards Township, N.J., and has a 10-year-old son with autism. She says

her blog attracts 3,000 to 4,000 visitors a day; traffic is up a third

since the campaign was introduced, she said.

" It emphasizes a lot of negative aspects, " she said. " To say that autism

or bulimia has kidnapped a child suggests that these conditions are part

of a criminal element. I'm not saying it's easy to have an autistic

child, but it could be framed in a more positive way. "

Vicki Forman, an adjunct professor of creative writing at the University

of Southern California whose 7-year-old son is blind and nonverbal,

learned about the campaign on Ms. Chew's blog and said it made her

distraught. " The idea of an autistic person being held hostage is a very

disturbing and backward image, " she said. " Rather than promote public

awareness, this reinforces stereotypes --- that there is something

damaged about the autistic person, something in need of a repair. "

According to Dr. Koplewicz, the campaign was inspired by filmed

conversations of parents and children talking about life with a

psychiatric disorder. " These families felt their children were trapped

by their disorders, " he said.

Osborn, the president and chief executive of BBDO New York, said

the effort was intended to increase the sense of urgency about the

diseases and encourage conversation. " It's tricky because there are a

lot of messages in the air, particularly at holiday time. That makes it

a challenge to cut through the clutter. "

BBDO's earlier ads for the Child Study Center --- which included images

of a child running happily through a sprinkler and a drawing of a child

caught in a maze --- " were wonderful, but they didn't get this kind of

attention from anyone, " Dr. Koplewicz said. " They were too pleasant and

innocuous. That's the reason we decided to go along with BBDO. "

He was further emboldened, he said, by the reaction of focus groups of

women whose children have the disorders mentioned in the ads. " Everyone

who participated felt the ads were informative, " he said. " While we knew

the campaign was edgy and we knew it would be harsh and upsetting, the

facts of mental illness are even more upsetting.

" I am disappointed. I thought the people we'd be arguing with are the

people who believe psychiatric illness doesn't exist " or those who

believe children are being overmedicated, he said.

" I thought we'd be fighting ignorance. I didn't think we'd be fighting

adult patients or the parents of patients whose feelings have been hurt. "

Etlinger of San Francisco is one such parent, but she maintains

that hers is " not the P.C. outcry of an offended parent. "

" It's a legitimate claim that children with disabilities are vulnerable

enough as it is, " said Ms. Etlinger, whose 4-year-old son has mild

autism. " I think we need to take special care that they're not further

stigmatized. This campaign characterizes them as a series of symptoms

rather than as the unique people they are. "

L. Leventhal, a professor of psychiatry at the University of

Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, said he understood the parents'

dismay. " We live in a world where people are still defensive about

having a psychiatric illness or having a child with psychiatric

illnesses, " he said. " But I think it's a very bold campaign. I think the

ads speak to the point that these are real diseases and if you don't do

something they can consume your child. "

Dr. Koplewicz said he had not considered jettisoning the campaign, but

there was some discussion about dropping its two most controversial

components: the autism and Asperger's ads.

He decided to retain the ads after conferring with colleagues whose

attitude, he said, " was that some people would be upset but that we

should stick with it and ride out the storm. "

" We're going to see how it goes in New York, " Dr. Koplewicz said. " If it

goes well, we're going to go to four other cities. "

*

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