Poland uses rabbits to urge Poles to have kids

The Polish Health Ministry has commissioned a controversial TV commercial urging Poles to have more children. In the video, which is already online, a rabbit offers simple tips for producing more offspring. Commentators see this as an insult to the Poles' intelligence that reduces human coexistence to a matter of sexual reproduction.

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Gazeta Wyborcza (PL) /

Commercial insults the Poles' intelligence

Quoting a section of the commercial TV journalist Monika Olejnik objects to being compared to rabbits in an opinion piece for Gazeta Wyborcza:

“'Who knows better than us rabbits how to ensure that you have lots of offspring. First we exercise a lot. Second, we have a healthy diet. Third, we don't stress ourselves unnecessarily. Fourth, we don't drink. So if you want to have kids follow the bunnies' example. I know what I'm talking about; my father had 63 of us.' I thought I was dreaming. It's hard to believe, but the commercial is actually scheduled to be aired on TVP by the end of the year. It cost almost three million euros to make. Do they think we're stupid? This is an insult to the Poles' intelligence. All you need is exercise and a healthy diet and everything will be okay?”

Gość Niedzielny (PL) /

Rabbits are no role model

Those who compare people with rabbits are making light of the serious topic of having children and the family, the Catholic magazine Gość Niedzielny writes angrily:

“The creators of the commercial were trying to deal with the topic of reproductive medicine and reproduction in a light and humourous way. Unfortunately they achieved just the opposite. Comparing people with rabbits - whose reproductive behaviour is not associated with health but with a mindless sex drive - isn't just shooting yourself in the foot, but in the forehead. Many will be angered to see rabbits being used as a symbol for Polish men and women, thus reducing them to the level of objects, and the family to its reproductive function.”