Congratulations to everyone who blogged these ads and signed the petition. The NYU Child Study Center has decided to pull the ads. From the WSJ Health Blog:
Today, Koplewicz told the Health Blog that he decided to pull the ads because “the debate began to become focused on the ads themselves” rather than on the disorders that they were intended to highlight.
Koplewicz insists there wasn’t a particular incident that spurred the decision, but told us that “many intelligent individuals and reasonable individuals were telling me they were reading the ads in a different way” than they were meant to be read. Many parents said they felt blamed for their child’s illness even though they were getting their child the best treatment they could, which was not the intention of the ads, says Koplewicz.
He has received thousands of phone calls and e-mails since the ads became widely publicized, about 70% against the campaign. Although he heard from parents who said the ads spoke to them, “simultaneously we unintentionally hurt many other people’s feelings,” Koplewicz says.
[Edited at 5:12PM to add WSJ blog link]
Technorati Tags: NYU Child Study Center, Ransom Note, ADHD, Autism, Asperger’s, depression
