Aspies For Freedom

Here is the text of a joint statement and press release from the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network and other disability rights groups regarding the offensive "Ransom Notes" advertisements.  Please show your solidarity by writing to all the people mentioned on ASAN's contact information page and protesting the ads!

___________________________________________________________


The following letter was mailed and hand-delivered to the NYU Child Study Center on December 11th, 2007. It is co-signed by fourteen premier disability rights organizations, including ASAN, ADAPT, TASH, ADA Watch and the National Coalition for Disability Rights, the Autism National Committee and many more. In it, we urge the Center to withdraw its offensive "Ransom Notes" advertising campaign, which stigmatizes people with disabilities and misinforms the public. As some of you have already heard from our previous communications on this topic, the advertising campaign is expected to garner 700 million impressions over the next four months, requiring us to act quickly to stop grave damage to the public perception of people with disabilities.

As several others have indicated an interest in joining our statement in response to the "Ransom Notes" advertising campaign, we are encouraging organizations to issue letters endorsing the joint statement and send them to the supporters of the "Ransom Notes" campaign, urging them to withdraw the offensive advertising. Contact information for all of the supporters of the "Ransom Notes" campaign is available here on ASAN's website. We will also be making available in the next day or so a petition for individuals to sign to express their support for the disability community's efforts. We urge individuals and groups to indicate their support now for the joint statement of fourteen disability rights organizations on this topic directly by contacting the NYU Child Study Center by e-mail at Harold.Koplewicz@nyumc.org or by phone at 212-263-6205.

Thank you so much to everyone who has already written and called to protest the "Ransom Notes" campaign over the course of the past few days and for those who will do so for as long as it takes to show that the disability community will not stand for advertising that questions the humanity of people with disabilities. We will be keeping you informed as we continue to mobilize the disability community against these hurtful and unfortunate statements. Your support is what keeps the disability community strong.

Regards,
Ari Ne'eman
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network, President
http://www.autisticadvocacy.org
info@autisticadvocacy.org
732.763.5530

___________________________________________________________

Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D.
The NYU Child Study Center  
577 First Avenue  
New York, NY 10016  

Dr. Robert Grossman, M.D.
NYU School of Medicine
IRM  229
560 First Avenue
New York NY 10016

John Osborn
President and CEO of BBDO New York
BBDO New York
1285 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10019

Richard Schaps, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Van Wagner Communications, LLC.
800 Third Ave 28th Floor
New York, NY 10022

To the NYU Child Study Center and the supporters of the "Ransom Notes" advertising
campaign:

We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to you regarding your new ad campaign for the NYU Child Study Center: "Ransom Notes". Our organizations represent people with a wide range of disabilities, including those portrayed in your campaign, as well as family members, professionals and others whose lives are affected by disabilities. As people who live and work with disability, we cannot help but be oncerned by the way your campaign depicts individuals with disabilities. By choosing to portray people on the autism spectrum as well as those living with OCD, ADHD and other disabilities as kidnapped or possessed children, you have inadvertently reinforced many of the worst stereotypes that have prevented children and adults with disabilities from gaining inclusion, equality and full access to the services and supports they require.

While the "Ransom Notes" campaign was no doubt a well-intentioned effort to increase awareness and thus support for the disabilities it describes, the means through which it attempts this have the opposite effect. When a child with ADHD is described as "a detriment to himself and those around him," it hurts the efforts of individuals, parents and families to ensure inclusion and equal access throughout society for people with disabilities. When individuals with diagnoses of autism and Asperger's Syndrome are told that their capacities for social interaction and independent living are completely destroyed, it hurts their efforts for respect, inclusion, and necessary supports by spreading misleading and inaccurate information about these neurologies. While it is true that there are many difficulties associated with the disabilities you describe, individuals with those diagnostic categories do succeed – not necessarily by becoming indistinguishable from their non-disabled peers – but by finding ways to maximize their unique abilities and potential on their own terms.

The "Ransom Notes" campaign places a stigma on both parents and children, thus discouraging them from pursuing a diagnosis that might be helpful in gaining access to the appropriate services, supports, and educational tools. The autism spectrum should be recognized for what it is: a lifelong neurological condition – not a kidnapper that steals children in the dead of the night. The devaluation of the lives of people with disabilities has led to public policies and funding decisions that have forced thousands of people with disabilities into nursing homes and other institutions. The unintended consequences of ad campaigns like yours give legitimacy to the taking away of the civil and human rights of people with disabilities.

It is true that diagnoses of ADHD, autism, Asperger's Syndrome, and OCD often accompany great hardships for families. It is true that depression and bulimia are terrible disorders that require treatment. Yet, the way you choose to convey those messages is inappropriate and counterproductive. 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. Too often, the idea that children with disabilities are less than human lies at the heart of horrific crimes committed against them. The recent tragic instances of violence against children and adults on the autism spectrum and with other developmental disabilities are linked to the perception that these people are less than human. We – the adults, families, professionals and others affected by these conditions - assert that nothing could be further from the truth.

We are also concerned that the negative stereotypes the "Ransom Notes" campaign depicts could make it harder for the many people with disabilities and their family members who are working to ensure that students with disabilities have the right to be included in their home schools while still receiving all necessary services. Federal law mandates that students with disabilities have the right to a "free and appropriate public education" in the "least restrictive environment". Your advertising campaign claims that children with disabilities could be a detriment to those around them and as a result hurts the efforts of parents working to secure the opportunity for their children to be included with their peers.

While we recognize and applaud the good intentions intended by this effort, we must urge you to withdraw this campaign immediately, as it threatens to harm the very people whom it seeks to benefit: people with disabilities, their families, and their supporters. In the press release announcing this campaign, the Center gave as one of its goals "eliminating the stigma of being or having a child with a psychiatric disorder". We are in full agreement with the goal of eliminating stigma against people with disabilities and their families. Yet, this campaign serves to increase that stigma rather than lessen it. We hope that you will heed our concerns and those of many other people with disabilities, family members, professionals, and countless others and end the "Ransom Notes" advertising campaign.

Please do not hesitate to contact any of the organizations listed as signatories to this letter in order to better solicit the opinions of the disability community prior to your next advertising campaign. We would be more than glad to help the Center to develop better strategies to achieve its excellent goals. The NYU Child Study Center has the potential to do enormous good for children and families affected by disability. By showing that the Center respects the views of people with disabilities, families, and professionals, you can make that aspiration a reality.

Sincerely,

Ari Ne'eman
President
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network
http://www.autisticadvocacy.org
info@autisticadvocacy.org

Bob Kafka
National Organizer
ADAPT
http://www.adapt.org/

Diane Autin
Executive Co-Director
Statewide Parent Advocacy Network of New Jersey
http://www.spannj.org/  

Jim Ward
ADA and the National Coalition for Disability Rights
http://www.adawatch.org/  

Janette R. Vance
The Family Alliance to Stop Abuse and Neglect
http://www.thefamilyalliance.net/

Estee Klar-Wolfond
The Autism Acceptance Project
http://www.taaproject.com/

Barbara Trader, MS
Executive Director
TASH
http://www.tash.org

Jim Sinclair
Autism Network International
http://ani.autistics.org/

Stephen Drake
Not Dead Yet
http://www.notdeadyet.org/  

Stanley Soden
Director of Independent Living Services.
MOCEANS Center for Independent Living
http://www.moceanscil.org/

Ethan B. Ellis, Executive Director
Executive Director
Alliance for Disabled in Action, Inc.  
http://www.adacil.org/
President
Next Step, Inc.

Phil Schwarz
Vice President
Asperger Association of New England
http://www.aane.org/

Sharisa Kochmeister
President
Autism National Committee
http://www.autcom.org

What is ransom notes?  Can you explain this?

From: Ari Ne'eman <aneeman@autisticadvocacy.org>
Date: Dec 7, 2007 5:41 PM
Subject: An Urgent Call to Action: Tell NYU Child Study Center to Abandon Stereotypes Against People With Disabilities

Hello all:

As many of you may already be aware, the NYU Child Study Center has recently launched a new advertising campaign entitled, "Ransom Notes", depicting the diagnoses of Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, ADHD, and several other conditions as kidnappers, holding children for ransom. This highly offensive ad campaign--which is set to launch on billboards, kiosks, print magazine and newspaper advertisements, and online--relies on some of the oldest and most offensive disability stereotypes to frighten parents into making use of the NYU Child Study Center's services. Below are several excerpts of the language used in NYU Child Study Center's "Ransom Notes" campaign. We've also attached pictures of the ads themselves:

"* We are in possession of your son. We are making him squirm and fidget until he is a detriment to himself and those around him. Ignore this and your kid will pay…ADHD."


"* We have your son. We will make sure he will no longer be able to care for himself or interact socially as long as he lives. This is only the beginning…Autism."


"* We have your son. We are destroying his ability for social interaction and driving him into a life of complete isolation. It's up to you now…Asperger's Syndrome."


This campaign, which is expecting over 700 million impressions over the next four months, is highly inaccurate and spreads classic stereotypes against individuals with disabilities. There are a number of problems with the advertising campaign:

* The ads stigmatize people with disabilities by suggesting that we are a 'detriment to ourselves and those around us.'

* The ads make people with disabilities feel shame and embarrassment.

* The ads contain inaccurate information: For example, while people with diagnoses of autism and Asperger's often have difficulty with some forms of social interaction, we are not incapable of it and can succeed and thrive on our own terms when supported, accepted and included for who we are.

* The ads suggest that our true selves have been "kidnapped" by terrible "diseases" and that we need urgent treatment to become normal again. This "stolen child" stereotype has been associated with horrible abuses against individuals with disabilities, ranging from social cruelty to beating, electric shock and even murder.

* The ads do not inspire parents to bring struggling children to professionals for diagnosis and appropriate treatment but instead just make parents terrified that their children are doomed and destined to have horrible, sad lives.

* The ads convey an incomplete and inaccurate picture of the diagnoses they purport to represent; they fail to show the many strengths and abilities of the individuals with those diagnoses. They fail to show the opportunities for support, education and resources that the NYU Child Study Center should be offering to parents and individuals with disabilities.

It is extremely important that we let the NYU Child Study Center know that its language is unacceptable and encourage them to pull the campaign before it does irreparable damage to people with disabilities everywhere. As an organization of adults and youth on the autism spectrum, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network is working closely with self-advocates, parents, professionals, and other concerned citizens from throughout the disability community to implement an organized response. However, our time is short, and we need you to make your voice heard immediately. Below you will find contact information for the NYU Child Study Center, the director of the NYU Medical Center, and a number of businesses who have donated time, ad space, or other resources to the campaign. We've provided a sample template for your letters, but please feel free to substitute your own words and to call the Center and their supporters over the phone. If you use our template, please make sure to delete the sections you will not be using within the bold-bracketed items. Once again, the need for action on this is immediate, so please write and/or call now.

Thank you all for your efforts and please feel free to pass along this message to other individuals and groups. We will keep you informed, and we ask that you please e-mail any responses you receive to info@autisticadvocacy.org so we can coordinate our response to this offensive advertising campaign.

Best,
Ari Ne'eman
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network, President
http://www.autisticadvocacy.org
info@autisticadvocacy.org
732.763.5530

An online petition against the ads is up:

http://www.petitiononline.com/ransom/petition.html

ads are 1000% disgusting.  and i thought autism speaks was over the top.

It will all change when the autism prenatal tests come out.  Instead of saying they kidnapped some children, they can just offer to kill them.  

The ads are disgusting.

If obesity was proven to be a mostly genetic response to environmental stressors, would that make people less prejudice?  But obesity still can be treated and it is associated with other health problems.  But still, would it be ridiculous for people to want to abort babies for having an obesity gene?  

I don't think that autism can be compared to health problems or disorders such as obesity, CF, etc.

#514  I am an adult with Aspergers, and I'm not ashamed of it. These ads are disgusting.

i heard one of the doctors from this campaign say that he wanted mental disorders looked as the same as physical disorders.  he probably wants all of us to be labeled psychotic or something (i think that's like mentally deranged).  i have never been labeled anything close to that ever, and that type of thinking is disgusting.  he's probably pro-eugenics and wanting to get rid of anyone that isn't 'normal'.

Here's their press release attempting to justify the campaign:

http://www.aboutourkids.org/files/news/p...elease.pdf

The press release refers to free kiosk and billboard space donated by Van Wagner and also "Other participants in our pro bono [i.e. they've donated ad space free of charge] campaign include New York Magazine, Newsweek, Parents, Education Update and Mental Health News.

If you want to write to request that the above advertising/publicity company and publications pull their support, here are the relevant details  [delete the deliberate breaks]:

Van Wagner:

http://www.van     wagner.com/contact-us/

Here are the contact details for advertising executives at Newsweek:

http://www.newsweek      mediakit.com/newsite/us/contact/index.shtml

New York Magazine:

http://nymag.      com/contactus/

Education Update:

http://www.education     update.com/about_us/index.html

There is a generic email address there, but the mediakit for advertisers gives:  advertising   @   educationupdate.com

The Education Update website is carrying a banner with the ransom ads.

Parents magazine:

http://www.meredith.com/          mediakit/parents/print/contact-us.html

No email addresses listed for advertising executives, just phone numbers.

NB: I've provided these details for people to use sensibly, i.e. no rants, no offensive phone calls or emails to these people, please.  If you adopt such tactics, you'll only harm the cause.

Do we have any American citizens/residents on these boards at the mo'?

Can they threaten legal action for punitive damages for the offense caused by these despicable advertisements?

I've emailed Van Wagner, Education Update and Newsweek so far... going for a tea break...

The protest campaign was a success, and the ads have been pulled!

I've started a new thread about the victory...

What I in fact did in relation to Van Wagner and Newsweek was email a number of their specifically named marketing and sales directors and executives (instead of emailing to the generic company contact address) and I also emailed the director of the NYU Child Study Center.

I haven't received a single reply.  No word of apology for any upset or offence caused.  Nada.

Although the public climbdown is much better!

Well done everyone!