As many of you may or may not know, Candies is a brand of clothing sold at Kohls (and probably other stores besides, but since my idea of shopping involves Wally World, K-Mart, or resale shops/garage sales, I’m not entirely sure). It’s pretty well known, because Hillary Duff is used in the marketing campaign. Like most companies, they have a charity named after them (semi-egotistical, in my opinion, but hey, what’s new), and it appears to deal with teen pregnancy. Everyone’s seen those ads, with celebrities like Ciara, Hilary, Fall Out Boy, and Fergie (no, I don’t know who the rest of them are. Yeah, I call myself a teen girl. For shame, for shame), and the statistics written in white lettering on a white background.
I’m just not too thrilled with the one of the ads that they run on their myyearbook site (http://www.myyearbook.com/candiesfoundation). This is the one that plays when the pink button in the large frame is pressed, not the little picture off to the side. Basically, the whole ad goes like this: there are two kids parked somewhere. The boy leans in and kisses the girl, and then asks if she’s “ready to do this” – but what “this” is, the viewers never really find out. All of the sudden, a woman opens up the door, the two stop the kissing, and the intruder confronts them. The girl says, “there’s nothing to worry about”, and the woman hands her a crying baby. The boy gets out of the car, and the girl looks mournfully up at the camera while the child cries.
Alrighty then, George, let’s get cracking. First off, it’s never flat-out said that “this” equals sex. For all the audience knows, it could have meant a five-hour long game of Monopoly. In his car. While making out. Yeah, I can see it. Second of all, the boy is a real jackoff, especially to “his” child. I think I live in Minorityville, because when that has happened, or even a scare occurs, the boys tend to stand up and take responsibility (unless the girl doesn’t want him to know, which has happened). I have to hand it to the ex that I bashed a few entries back, because he didn’t leave his girlfriend to deal with it on her own… He is, at least, being dependable. Finally, a strange woman will not just come and hand someone a kid because he or she thinks about crossing the line. There are the next nine months, months of either coming to terms with the pregnancy, choosing to make the best of the situation regardless, or complete embarrassment, depending on the point of view taken… If the girl even chooses to have the child!
(And if it happened like that, I’d be swimming in the little rugrats.)
I don’t know why, but something about this rubbed me the wrong way. I don’t like the idea of the “stork” coming and punishing kids because they kissed. So what if they were in a car? I’ve had interesting conversations in a parked car, conversations that involved words and not bodies! And, uh, kids don’t limit themselves to cars, believe you me… Living rooms, couches, basements, their beds, their siblings beds, their friend’s beds, their parent’s beds, their grandparent’s bathroom (oh, the awkward story behind hearing that), school bathrooms, on the bus, in a truck bed, on the table, on the kitchen counter/island, on the floor… We aren’t limited to cars anymore. This is the age of kids staying home alone more, of TV and school being the babysitters… Babysitters that seem to fail most of the time.
Maybe, if we want teen pregnancy to end, we need to watch the kids more, and talk to them about the possible consequences of sex, like babies, STDs, emotional turmoil (which I’ve watched more than one of my girl friends go through, because they had sex with the guys they thought that they liked, and the guys never seem to call or care)… Let’s not totally screw with the younger generation’s mind and make them think that Creepy Lady stalks them.
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