Love your country? Make a baby, ad tells Singaporeans

MANILA, Philippines – To show one’s love for country, why not make a baby?

This is the idea behind an ad campaign for a candy brand in Singapore, launched in time for Singapore’s National Day (August 9), which has been going viral in the city-state.

It was mainly for the launch of Mentos candy’s special “I Heart SG” pack in time for the August 9 holiday, the Wall Street Journal reported. It was the response of the ad agency BBH Asia-Pacific to the question “how much Mentos really ‘hearts’ Singapore.”

“Mentos is applying its trademark fresh thinking to celebrate Singapore’s National Day and help make the country even better. And it’s starting by tackling our country’s unbelievably low birthrate,” the video description said.

Alarmingly low birth rate

The viral campaign is the latest attempt to seduce Singaporeans into, well, making babies.

Unlike many of its Southeast Asian neighbors, Singapore suffers from an abysmally low birth rate, threatening to deprive the city-state of people who can help sustain its economy.

The country’s birth rate is 7.72 births per 1,000 people, ranking at near-bottom (219) among all countries.

The Total Fertility Rate (TFR), meanwhile, is at a record low of 1.16 in 2011, below the replacement rate of 2.1. Its previous record was 1.22 (2009).

The TFR is defined as the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime, based on the premise that all women lived until the end of their fertile years and gave birth based on a given fertility rate at each age.

The CIA World Factbook, meanwhile, estimates Singapore’s TFR for 2012 to be at 0.78 – the lowest among the 222 countries and territories listed.

To help encourage couples to have babies, the Singapore government has been doing everything, from tax breaks to extended maternity leaves, even sponsoring events where young, single Singaporeans could hang out and meet potential partners.

The issue on low birth rates is so important that it even makes its way into the National Day speech of the Prime Minister. The Wall Street Journal noted that in 2008 more than 5,000 words were dedicated to the topic by PM Lee Hsien Loong.

The Financial Times even noted that Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s revered first Prime Minister, said this is the country’s “biggest challenge.”

National Night

The ad encouraged citizens – in particular “financially secure adults in stable, committed, long-term relationships” – to “celebrate” what it called “National Night.”

“Mentos presents National Night, a fresh new way to “celebrate” your love of Singapore,” the description added.

It uses social media to spread the word on what it called couples’ “national duty” – helping increase the city-state’s population by making babies.

The centerpiece of the Mentos ad campaign is the 3:17 -minute rap.

“Let’s not watch fireworks / Let’s make ’em instead,” the song goes. Later, the male singer sings, “I want a baby, boo / I know you want it, so does the SDU,” referring to the Social Development Network (formerly the Social Development Unit), the office that is essentially a state-sponsored matchmaking agency.

It also uses references familiar to Singaporeans, with lines such as “Like a government scholar / I wanna cram real hard,” and “Tap you all night like an EZLink card.”

“It’s National Night, so let’s make Singapore’s birthrate spike,” the song says.

Singaporeans’ reactions were varied – from offended to amused. But most say the issue on population is a serious thing that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.

The government is not involved in the ad campaign. “We didn’t need to get any [government] clearance or go through any vetting,” BBH’s Adrian Chan told FT. – Rappler.com