October 27, 2008 12:50 ET

The Candie's Foundation's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Public Service Announcement Rejected by USA Today

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - October 27, 2008) - The Candie's Foundation's "America, Wake Up" PSA campaign to prevent teenage pregnancy was due to run as a full-page advertisement in USA Today. On Friday afternoon, the publication rejected the ad after much discussion about their desire to avoid offending their readers.

USA Today began by explaining that it did not want to offend its readers and subsequently changed and re-changed its position until ultimately rejecting the PSA late Friday afternoon claiming they downsized the paper and "could not accommodate the ad."

The Candie's Foundation debuted the new campaign in honor of October being "Let's Talk" month, that encourages parents to speak with kids about sex and teen pregnancy.

Neil Cole, Founder, The Candie's Foundation, stated, "This is very disappointing. We are trying to get across an important message about the devastating consequences of teen pregnancy and one of the key publications to reach parents and families is USA Today. The fact that they deem this PSA as offensive further drives home the key problem that the media is not addressing this issue."

The print PSA features a call to action for parents to watch the Foundation's "What Are You Doing?" PSA television spot along with their teenagers tonight at 8pm on The CW during the hit show, "Gossip Girl." The goal of the campaign is to act as a conversation starter for parents to talk to their children about teen pregnancy prevention.

Cole added, "We felt like 'Gossip Girl' was the perfect outlet to televise the PSA because its audience is mostly composed of teens and young adults."

The New York Times and New York Post ran the PSA in today's paper.

Source: The Candie's Foundation a 501 (C) 3 not-for-profit corporation.