Even Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, whose own health minister started the campaign, distanced himself from the ads in a radio interview, noting ironically that none of his friends “had their kids after seeing an advert.”

Mr. Renzi said that to increase the birthrate, structural issues like day care and services needed to be addressed.

Under Mr. Renzi, Italy’s government has tried to help families with a so-called baby bonus of 80 to 160 euros, or about $90 to $180, for low- and middle-income households, and it has approved labor laws giving more flexibility on parental leave. But Italy allocates only 1 percent of its gross domestic product to social protection benefits — half the European average. One child out of three here is at risk of relative poverty.

“Italy has a terrible combination: low birthrate, low women’s employment and high risk of child poverty,” said Alessandro Rosina, a professor of demography at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. “On this path, Italy can only but have increasing costs for aging people, and increased public debt.”

“We defend our present, but can’t design the future,” Professor Rosina said.

Figures from Istat, the national statistics agency, show that Italian women with children are far less likely to work than mothers in other European countries, which provide greater social services.

In much of northern Europe, where social services are greater, about 70 percent of women work — and almost all of them continue to work after having children. By comparison, according to Eurostat, Italy has the second-lowest female employment rate in Europe, especially in the south.

“So many young women are even asked to presign a resignation letter here, especially in small companies,” said Teresa Potenza, a longtime women’s advocate in Naples, referring to a practice in which some women are asked to sign a resignation letter in case of pregnancy before they are hired. “Even to all those women, that campaign is a punch to the gut.”