"Ransom Notes" Ad Campaign Ends

Ari Ne’eman, president of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN) that led the protest against the NYU Child Study Center’s “Ransom Notes” ad campaign, announces:

I am pleased to inform you that this afternoon the NYU Child Study Center announced that they will be ending the “Ransom Notes” ad campaign in response to widespread public pressure from the disability community. You can read that announcement here (at the NYU Child Study Center’s website). The thousands of people with disabilities, family members, professionals and others who have written, called, e-mailed and signed our petition have been heard. Today is a historic day for the disability community. Furthermore, having spoken directly with Dr. Harold Koplewicz, Director of the NYU Child Study Center, I have obtained a commitment to pursue real dialogue in the creation of any further ad campaign depicting individuals with disabilities. We applaud the NYU Child Study Center for hearing the voice of the disability community and withdrawing the “Ransom Notes” ad campaign.

Twenty-two disability rights organizations came together to ensure the withdrawal of this advertising campaign. Our response to this campaign stretched continents, with e-mails, letters and phone calls coming from as far away as Israel, Britain and Australia. The disability community acted with a unity and decisiveness that has rarely been heard before and we are seeing the results of our strength today. Our success sends an inescapable message: if you wish to depict people with disabilities, you must consult us and seek our approval. Anything less will guarantee that we will make our voices heard. We are willing to help anyone and any group that seeks to raise awareness of disability issues, but those efforts must be done with us, not against us. This is a victory for inclusion, for respect and for the strength and unity of people with disabilities across the world. It is that message that has carried the day in our successful response to this campaign. Furthermore, we intend to build on this progress, not only by continuing a dialogue with the NYU Child Study Center and using this momentum to ensure self-advocate representation at other institutions as well, but also by building on the broad and powerful alliance that secured the withdrawal of these ads in the first place. We are strongest when we stand together, as a community, as a culture and as a people.

Thank you to all of you who have made this victory possible. Remember: “Nothing About Us, Without Us!”

It didn’t look promising at first. This past weekend the images of the ads at the Child Study Center’s website were briefly taken down, but they were back up when the New York Times Sunday coverage of the ads quoted Koplewicz as saying the Center was determined to “stick with it and ride out the storm” and even expand the campaign to four other cities soon.

Kristina Chew, PhD., who blogs at Autism Vox and was also quoted in the NYT article, has been providing relentless commentary, coverage and linkage to dozens of blogs writing about the ads. To follow those posts chronologically go here, here, here, here, here and here.

Or check out Furious Seasons where Philip Dawdy makes some interesting connections in noting that Koplewicz co-authored a study of Paxil for the pharmaceutical company Glaxo SmithKline that apparently exaggerated benefits and downplayed adverse effects in treating adolescent depression. Koplewicz is one of dozens of co-authors of that study, but Dawdy wrote earlier this year:

“Some very smart people have taken on many of the issues around Study 329 and Paxil/Seroxat and, based upon the evidence, I’d have to say that it’s fair to assert that none of us in the patient world should trust anyone who had a hand in the study (unless they want to suddenly recant the work) on absolutely anything they say about mental illness. At a minimum, we should be wildly skeptical of any claims they make.”

Dawdy hasn’t been the only one to speculate about what corporate interests might have connections to the Ransom Notes ad campaign. Many commenters to the NYT article wondered about possible pharmaceutical backing for the ads, though I’ve seen absolutely no direct evidence of this. It seems to have been yet another case of do-gooders offering a message that didn’t take into account the experiences and feelings of those they set out to help.

In the Center’s announcement of the end of the ad campaign, Koplewicz writes:

Though we meant well, we’ve come to realize that we unintentionally hurt and offended some people. We’ve read all the emails, both pro and con, listened to phone calls, and have spoken with many parents who are working day and night to get their children the help they need. We have decided to conclude this phase of our campaign today because the debate over the ads is taking away from the pressing day-to-day work we need to do to help children and their families. They are and remain our first concern.

Our goal was to start a national dialogue. Now that we have the public’s attention, we need your help. We would like to move forward and harness the energy that this campaign has generated to work together so that we do not lose one more day in the lives of these children. We hope you will partner with us to bring the issues surrounding child and adolescent mental health to the top of America’s agenda. Work with us as we fight to give children and their families equal access to health insurance, remove the stigma that the term “psychiatric disorder” so clearly still elicits, and, most importantly, support the drive to make research and science-based treatment a national priority.

We invite all of you to continue this conversation online at a “town hall” meeting that we will hold early next year as we plan the next phase of our national public awareness campaign on child mental health. Look for details on our web site www.AboutOurKids.org.

Cross-posted at The Gimp Parade