Ok...ok...what in the #$%& does this have to do with raising awareness about autism???

Are they trying to say autism is sexy? They're not even trying for the "sexy wimminz get autism, too! Save the tatas!" angle, here.

All it looks like is that Leeann gave them a free copy of her modeling/acting portfolio, and they chose to use that instead of spending money on an actual, informative advert.

Bizarre! Maybe they're taking lessons from PETA.

The message of the second spot is good -- self-advocacy and neurodiversity are critical concepts in extricating autism from medicalized regimes of power. But they're very incongruous with the first spot, which reifies medical authority.

As someone with a family member with vaccine-induced autism, I find the appeal to (inappropriately designed and drug-company funded) studies designed to 'disprove' the vaccine-autism link a misleading and dangerous message. Hopefully, even those less knowledgeable about the subject will reject the message based on the sexual exploitation of these ads alone.

Vidya, I don't want to devalue your experiences, but the first ad is factually correct. There has been no proven link between Autism and vaccines in scientifically rigorous studies. There may be an environmental factor, but vaccines aren't it. Originally, mercury, or thimerosal, in vaccines was thought to be causing autism, despite scientists who said the level of thimerosal in the vaccines was safe. However, due to the efforts of Dr. Neal Halsey, thimerosal was removed from all vaccines by 2001, an effort described as trying to "make safe vaccines even safer". Unfortunately, The rate of Autism diagnosis has not gone down since the removal of thimerosal, and vaccines continue to be scapegoated.

Vaccine-blame is dangerous, because it (obviously) leads to children not getting vaccinated, which in addition to endangering the un-vaccinated child, also endangers 'herd immunity', which protects those who are not vaccinated due to being too young/old, fragile, or allergic to a vaccine.

I'm sorry about your family member, it must be tough. I can't imagine what that's like. But there is no link between vaccines and autism, and people- children, even- can, have, and will die when they or those around them aren't vaccinated.

She finds those high heels comfortable?

When I was watching the first ad, I actually missed most of the text about the studies because I was looking at her ... high heels. I had to go back and watch that bit again to figure out what I had missed.

Silva, please accept that there are many of us -- intelligent, critical, educated people -- who have good reason to reject vaccination, on many grounds. (In my family member's case, the autism link is clear -- it was immediately induced by the vaccination.)
We have such safe and effective homeopathic preventatives and remedies against these diseases, that it's horrifying to see millions of animals murdered and generation after generation of humans risking their lifelong health, all for the sake of drug-company profits and power-hungry 'doctors'.

I have Asperger's syndrome. I remember that other ad campaign, with the faux ransom notes. That made me cry, with anger and frustration. There are so many misconceptions about what Autistic people look like, how we act, and how functional we are. Part of the difficulty is in the fact that Autism is a very broad spectrum, with people on it varying from highly impaired to almost "normal" in terms of function in society.

I'm closer to the "normal" end myself (with a lot of exceptions, which I'd love to explain to anyone who's interested), but I can't believe that being represented as some weird, undefined mix of obsessive-compulsive behavior, anger management issues, social interaction issues, and mental impairment feels good to people who are less functioning either. And I see that all the time, and it's supposed to represent me, too.
I try to tell as many people as possible about my Asperger's Syndrome. Most people have no idea what it is, which gives me the chance to explain. A lot of people, when they hear it's a form of Autism, suddenly snap right into those assumptions and start treating me like a dangerous child. Others refuse to believe that I'm Autistic, because I don't look like any of their assumptions.

That's a long ramble. Sorry about that. I'm getting cut off by events around me, so it's not going to end cleanly either.
These ad campaigns read so much as being made by non-Autistic people trying to alternately represent us as basket-cases or "worthy of pity".

Also, Vidya, your information is absolutely inaccurate. And terrifying. Even if it was vaccines causing Autism (AND IT'S NOT) epidemics of deadly diseases like mumps, influenza, and smallpox are ABSOLUTELY worse than Autism. REALLY.

In my family member’s case, the autism link is clear — it was immediately induced by the vaccination.

If I kick my dog and then it starts raining outside, is it clear that the raining was immediately induced by the dog-kicking?

No, that's silly. After all, I am familiar with many instances of rain that were not accompanied by any dog-kicking. Therefore I'm pretty sure that the connection in this case is just a coincidence.

Most people do not have many experiences with autism. If a child becomes autistic, that is a devastating shock. People are generally not in a position to say "Well, I have 200 kids, and I'm personally familiar with plenty of examples of autism occurring in the absence of vaccinations, as well as with examples of autism not occurring in the aftermath of vaccinations, so I think that the fact that autism symptoms first appeared right after the vaccination was just a coincidence." Ordinary experience is much more like "I have a kid, he got a shot, and the next day he seemed really messed up. How could that be a coincidence???"

That's why people have to do studies to investigate the link between vaccination and autism. And the studies show that there is no link.

On the other hand, only a few hundred million people were killed by smallpox before evil power-hungry "doctors" came up with a vaccine to eradicate it. Oh how I long for the gold old days of homeopathic remedies.

I'm very sorry about your family tragedy but denialism can be a matter of life and death.

I have an Aspie daughter, and I don't appreciate them bringing near naked women into the discussion as if to indicate that women with autism spectrum conditions are oooh so hot! Okay, they're just trying to get attention long enough to get to the punch line, but really, aren't women objectified enough in vaguely relevant situation? Now they've got to be part of something as obscure and emotionally difficult as autism? Oy.

Maybe LeeAnn has autism and is a lingerie model slash spokesperson? Doesn't much look it to me. If they wanted to use a beautiful woman in their ads they should have picked that awesome woman from America's Next Top Model that was an Aspie (can't remember her name all of a sudden). She had real role model potential.

About vaccines, it is maddening that there continues to be debate about this. The link has been disproven again and again and again, plus the chemical theoretically at fault is not in vaccines anymore. People who put the country's children at risk of deadly contagious diseases on the advice of celebrities and the completely unregulated "natural remedies" quacks drive me up a god damned tree! Yes, Big Pharma is greedy, but they don't make money off vaccines. Forget about this, already. Focus your attention on giving your kid the best life possible. Advocate for better insurance coverage, wider availability of therapies, stronger school accommodations. Why are you wasting your time looking for blame anyway? Leave that to the scientists. That's what they do.

Sorry. Started this comment thinking I wouldnt' get into it.

Trabb's Boy - The website has a paragraph before the videos that read: "Leeann is the friend of a family with an autistic child. When asked if she would help, she graciously agreed. She immediately understood the tongue-in-cheek nature of the spots and, as you’ll see, brought her “A” game!"

There is also a few other videos, including one that says "a healthy diet keeps a person in shape.... but there's no special diet proven to 'cure' autism". That tagline at least makes some sense when coupled with Leeann sprawled on the floor.

Omg repellant AND completely irrelevant! What were they thinking?!

All that anti-vaccine bullshit boils down to is "I rather my child had coughed and coughed for days until her ribs broke and then died choking in a pool of her own mucus than be diagnosed with autism." And that's fucking offensive as hell.

I read several blogs written by autistic people, and apparently these ads are actually a spoof of celebrities who endorse a different perspective on curing, rather than accepting, autism. "Whose Planet is it Anyway" links to an article explaining the connection in Vanity Fair and says this:

"These clever videos are a perfectly targeted and totally hilarious send-up of a certain former Playboy bunny's autism profiteering, and they had me rolling on the floor laughing."

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/culture/2009/06/18/if-only-your-doctor-dressed-like-this-too.html

They're still using sex to sell a message, but now it also makes a little bit more sense how over the top these videos are.

The first thing I thought when I saw the ads was, "well I suppose that's one way to counter Jenny McCarthy." Seriously, that woman has been driving me crazy. Not that I really want to decide whether it's ok to counter celebrity with sex.

And just to chime in on the other point, there's been a lot of good research lately on the early signs of autism, with the aim of developing diagnosis assessments for young toddlers and babies. Susan Bryson of Dalhousie University has just finished up a great study. She'd been following a cohort of babies from 6 months to 5 years. Right now, autism can only be reliably diagnosed after age 3, but in this study all of the kids that were later diagnosed were showing some symptoms before age 1. Let me say that another way, there were zero kids in the study who did not show symptoms before vaccination that showed symptoms after vaccination.

Personally, my son was showing symptoms in his first week of life.

Who are these ads meant to appeal to? I doubt it's mothers of autistic kids who are trying to decide whether or not to vaccinate.

So, they are directed at men. Does anyone really think these ads are going to get a man to read facts? How many men, after watching the ad, could even tell you what they said? Give me a break. When is our culture going to get past it's sexist, patriarchal notions? I used to at least pay attention to PETA (hearing there is an issue and then doing the research myself on it) until I realized how sexist their ads are with women. I don't give them credence anymore because they are putting women into the same place they've been for thousands of years. IMO, these ads lower the credibility of this campaign as well. Why should I listen to a cause that views women as sex objects? I don't even get past that point to hear what their message is, and it seems, from the comments, to be a pretty important message. Find another way to get the message across - stop using women as sex objects.

DEFINITELY don't agree with these ads, but have heard that these were made in satire (mocking jenny mccarthy and the ridiculous of her message). When it comes to intention v. execution, i always go with the actual execution but just wanted to point that out since the purpose (satire) doesn't come out well here and we're all left wondering what's going on.

The ads are a satire both of the usual "Look at the sexy woman! Buy this product!" ads and of Jenny McCarthy (and others) using their sex appeal to sell the dangerous anti-vax message.

You do know that the woman in the ad is the one who conceived of the idea and created the Rethinking Autism website? She's not a hired model or actress, she herself supports educating the masses on the complete lack of links between vaccination and autism. I say bravo to her for standing up to anti-vaxers in a cheeky, playful way.

Uh no, the woman in the ad is professional model Leeann Tweeden.

Leeann does not have autism. The mother pf an autistic boy who created RethinkingAutism.com does not look like Jenny, therefore can not get Jenny's attention. She is proving a point. I say bravo!

@Vidya how can you believe autism to be caused by vaccines and support neurodiveristy?