Leading UK pro-life charity LIFE says Brook’s Christmas campaign starting today is fundamentally flawed, underestimates and insults young people and will have no impact on the seasonal rise in STIs and unintended pregnancies which occurs every January.
LIFE spokesperson Michaela Aston, says: ‘Brook are handing out free ‘party survival’ packs to 16 and 17-year-olds over the festive season containing condoms and mobile phone credit. Every year similar campaigns are launched with no effect. In fact, this campaign will just makes things worse.
‘We need to look at why some young people drink to excess, why they have casual sex and why the two are linked. But instead Brook presents condoms as the answer – if you can’t control yourself, it says, at least use a condom.
‘But the irony is that condoms are much less effective when alcohol is involved, and, drunk or not, they do not protect against many STIs – including the most common one, genital warts.
‘The Brook campaign is a confused mass of contradictions. On the one hand they talk about ‘getting lucky with someone you fancy at a Christmas party’ and on the other gravely warn of the possible consequences of not using a condom. They claim that the best way to protect against STIs and unwanted pregnancies is by using a condom but elsewhere concede that condoms don’t protect against the most common STIs and are less likely to be effective when drinking.
‘Although the campaign rightly warns against drinking too much at Christmas, it still assumes that young people will drink to excess and assumes that casual sex is inevitable. Young people will act out our expectations of them – we need to raise our expectations, and fast.