Population explosion due
Falling birthrate behind Denmark’s series of sex campaigns encouraging more families.
Denmark’s birth rate is about to surge following a series of sex campaigns, including one that called on Danes to “Do it for Mom”.
Last year several campaigns on national television encouraged Danish people to procreate.
Spies Travel’s video with the slogan “Do it for Mom” last September urged people to have procreate to please their parents and help reverse the country’s ageing population.
“The Danish welfare system is under pressure. There are still not enough babies being born, despite a little progress. And this concerns us all. But those who suffer the most are perhaps the mothers who will never experience having a grandchild,” the ad said, showing an older Danish woman imagining her future grandchild.
Copenhagen City also produced its own campaign calling on people to think about their fertility. Slogans asked men if their sperm was “swimming too slowly” and women if they had “counted their eggs today”.
The national broadcaster also aired a programme titled Knald for Danmark (Screw for Denmark).
Now, nine months later, Denmark is set for a baby boom with 1200 more babies due to be born this northern summer compared to last year.
The campaigns stemmed from Denmark’s falling birth rate and ageing population.
In 2014, the national fertility rate was at 1.69. The average age of firsttime parents in Denmark was 29.1 years in 2014, five years older than the average age in 1970.
Copenhagen’s deputy mayor for health, Ninna Thomsen, said she did not want to take credit for the boom.
“You probably can’t ascribe the increase in births to our campaign, but it’s definitely a feather in our cap if the campaign had a positive effect.
“It was a bit of a surprise to me there were so many campaigns on the subject within such a short time. It certainly resulted in people getting plenty of fertility advice.”