This month, we asked Ari Ne'eman, President of The Autistic Self Advocacy Network, to write about the recent New York University Child Study Center ad campaign around childhood disabilities and the disability community's response, led by Ari and his organization. (Read more about the NYU ad campaign).

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Phony Ransom Notes Can Have Real Consequences

By Ari Ne’eman, President, The Autistic Self Advocacy Network

 

 

“We are in possession of your son…We have your daughter…We have taken your son… We are making him squirm and fidget until he is a detriment to himself and those around him… We are destroying his ability for social interaction and driving him into a life of complete isolation... It’s only going to get worse…This is only the beginning…Autism…ADHD…Asperger’s Syndrome…OCD…Bulimia…Depression” –Excerpts from the NYUChildStudyCenter’s “Ransom Notes” Ad Campaign

 

“Individuals with disabilities are not replacements for normal children that are stolen away by the disability in question. They are whole people, deserving of the same rights, respect, and dignity afforded their peers.” –An Open Letter to the NYUChildStudyCenter, December 11^th, 2007

 

The second set of words above comes from a joint statement from twenty-two disability rights organizations, in response to a new advertising campaign by the NYU Child Study Center and produced by one of the nation’s largest advertising and public relations firms, BBDO. The ad campaign, entitled “Ransom Notes,” depicts phony ransom letters signed by six different disabilities. Each disability is purported to have ”kidnapped” a previously normal child from his or her parents, threatening to turn the child into a terrible burden unless parents seek the help of the NYU Child Study Center and similar medical institutions is sought. The ads launched last month, but were quickly withdrawn after immense outrage from people with disabilities, family members, professionals and others.

 

For those of you familiar with the disability community, it is probably not hard to understand why these ads were viewed as horrendously offensive. The notes resurrect old and dangerous stereotypes about people with disabilities; the idea of the child or person with a disability as a changeling, or a stand-in for a supposedly more “real” or “whole” human being stands out as a common theme in countless instances of violence and discrimination. Furthermore, the ads included information that was just plain inaccurate. Claims that an individual with a disability such as ADHD, autism, Asperger’s Syndrome or others will be a “detriment to himself and everyone around him'” or live “a life of complete isolation” do not reflect the reality of people with these disabilities. This type of fear-mongering sends a dangerous message, increasing stigma and diminishing respect for the lives of America’s millions of citizens with disabilities.

 

The ads were expected to garner over 700 million impressions over the four months they were to be up in New York City on kiosks, billboards, magazines and other locations, before expanding into five major markets across the United States. Instead, they were withdrawn in their entirety, a mere sixteen days after the start of the campaign. What caused the change?

 

The answer begins and ends with the disability community, which showed remarkable unity in responding to these offensive ads. Twenty-two disability rights organizations, including AAPD, ADAPT, Not Dead Yet, TASH and my own organization, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, came together to call for the ads’ withdrawal in an unequivocal joint statement. We didn’t stop there, however. By organizing people with disabilities, family members, professionals, educators and countless other supporters, we arranged for thousands of calls, e-mails and letters to be sent to the NYUChildStudyCenter and the other supporters of the Ransom Notes ad campaign, calling for the immediate removal of the ads and an apology to the disability community. By the time our campaign had concluded, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal Online, the New York Daily News, United Press International, PR Weekly, Mental Health Weekly, Inclusion Daily News and many other venues had covered our response. Television and radio stations in the New York City area, as well as dozens of bloggers, addressed the controversy, raising greater awareness of the need for respect in advertising and public discourse about people with disabilities.

 

Responses like these are important, and not just because they provide an unrivaled opportunity to showcase the power the disability community can have when we act in unison. The depiction of people with disabilities as broken or kidnapped has practical consequences that are terrifyingly real. 

 

 “Maybe I could fix her this way, and in heaven she would be complete,'' said Dr. Karen McCarron in a videotape played at the murder trial of her three-year old autistic daughter, Katie McCarron, this past Thursday. Dr. McCarron believed that her daughter was broken. To “fix” her, she asphyxiated Katie with a plastic garbage bag as she struggled to get free. Karen McCarron saw children with disabilities as less than whole people, and the atrocity that ensued was the result of that terrifying misconception. The “Ransom Notes” ads spread similar mischaracterizations of disability.

 

It is instructive to note that a mere four days before Katie McCarron’s murder, a fundraising video for a group called Autism Speaks premiered. In the video, entitled Autism Every Day, another mother of a child on the autism spectrum announced how she had “actually contemplated putting Jody [her autistic daughter] in the car and driving off the GeorgeWashingtonBridge.” With Jody in the background of the camera shot, the woman, an executive Vice President at Autism Speaks, went on to say that “it’s only because of Lauren, the fact that I have another child, that I probably didn’t do it.” It is very clear the low value groups like Autism Speaks place on the lives of children and people with disabilities. Fortunately, the efforts of disability rights advocates stopped the NYUChildStudyCenter from continuing on the same ill-conceived path. As the trial of Dr. Karen McCarron continues, it behooves us to remember both that stigmatizing advertising has consequences and that we can and must do something about it.

 

Ari Ne'eman is the Founding President of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, a non-profit organization of adults and youth on the autism spectrum that was the primary coordinator of the disability community’s response to the “Ransom Notes” ad campaign. Ari is an Asperger's autistic and a frequent speaker on autism spectrum and disability politics, special education, transition, service delivery and other topics relating to the disability community. He serves on the board of several disability rights groups and is currently studying Political Science and Economics at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County as a Sondheim Scholar of Public Affairs. To find out more about the Autistic Self Advocacy Network or to find useful information for self-advocates of all kinds, please visit our website at http://www.autisticadvocacy.org.