Waffles, beer, chocolate and euthanasia: Belgium is famous for all of them. Will do-it-yourself eugenics be added to the list?
Creative Belgium, an industry group which promotes creativity in Belgian advertising has partnered with the Centre for Reproductive Medicine of Brussels and ad agency Air to advertise sperm donation.
Apparently there is a need for a new generation of creative advertising executives since fewer younger Belgians are taking up careers in advertising. “The number of students in creative fields has actually declined,” says Greet Wachters, manager of Creative Belgium. “Those who opt for creative studies don’t always end up looking for work in agencies.”
Solution? Lots of vials of creative sperm in IVF clinics.
Creative Belgium persuaded several prize-winning executive from different agencies to donate and then created an ad campaign. The poster depicts one of the men with the words, “Are you in the creative industry? Become a donor.” There’s also a video.
An article in Adweek failed to mention any scientific studies on the genetic basis for creativity, but Creative Belgium’s initiative seems to be based more on marketing than on genetics.
This article is published by Michael Cook and BioEdge under a Creative Commons licence. You may republish it or translate it free of charge with attribution for non-commercial purposes following these guidelines. If you teach at a university we ask that your department make a donation. Commercial media must contact us for permission and fees. Some articles on this site are published under different terms.The views, opinions and positions expressed by these authors and blogs are theirs and do not necessarily represent that of the Bioethics Research Library and Kennedy Institute of Ethics or Georgetown University.