In an effort to combat falling birth rates in Italy, the country's health ministry announced plans to launch its first ever Fertility Day on September 22. The day will focus on celebrating parenthood, encouraging people to start families, and spreading awareness about health conditions that can hinder fertility. The Italian government is promoting the day with a website, a computer game (yep, really) and a series of ads.

If the idea of the event itself weren't questionable enough, the ads are what really took the cake—and sparked outrage from Italian citizens on Twitter and throughout the internet. The ads feature cheeky images of couples' feet in bed, women holding up hourglasses (ladies, your baby-making window is dwindling!), and women holding their stomachs. Lest you think men are exempt from the shaming parade, another ad features an image of a rotting banana peel alongside a fear-mongering phrase about male fertility.

One ad features the saying, "Beauty has no age. But fertility does." Another says, "Get a move on! Don't wait for the stork," while another still urges Italians to "go forth and multiply." One of the most striking reads, "Young parents. The best way to be creative."

It's not too much of a stretch to imagine why this campaign has infuriated some Italian citizens. Low birth rates are a real issue, but this is not the way to handle the problem. For starters, it's hard to imagine that these guilt-tripping ads will be very effective—if young Italians are anything like most millennials around the world, their parents are probably providing them with all the pressure to have kids that they can take already, thank you very much. If their parents' overbearing pleas to hurry up and give them grandchildren haven't gotten the job done, an awkwardly constructed advertisement isn't going to either. (Also, FYI, women are not single-service baby machines and do not exist solely to reproduce on demand.)

Of course, an even more serious issue raised by this campaign is that the decision to have children is way too personal and life-changing to be taken lightly. A low birth rate may be concerning, but what's potentially even more concerning is pressuring people to have kids before they're ready to emotionally or physically care for them. Kids born to parents who aren't ready for them have higher odds of growing up with economic insecurity, and may suffer psychogically if their parents aren't yet emotionally prepared to raise children. Italy is in the midst of battling staggering youth unemployment rates, which is likely part of the reason citizens are putting off parenthood to begin with. Encouraging these same youth to bring babies into the world before they feel financially prepared to do so misses the root of the problem, and spreads a sexist and reductive message in the process. Perhaps the campaign came from good intentions, but there's got to be a better way.

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Photo Credit: Twitter / Paul Antonin / Getty