Denmark's 'Do it Forever' video campaign encourages people to have children to get discounted holidays
Couples urged to have more sex after campaign linked to increase in births over the summer
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Your support makes all the difference.Danes are being offered discounted all-inclusive holidays in return for having children as part of a viral video campaign credited with increasing the country’s birth rate.
The Spies travel agency urged the country to “Do it for Denmark” in 2014, then “Do it for Mum” the following year, with the videos generating a combined 20 million views and spawning a nationwide trend.
A week later, local authorities in Copenhagen ran a campaign encouraging residents to have children younger, asking women if they’ve “counted their eggs today”, while Denmark’s national broadcaster ran a show called Knald for Danmark, which translates as Screw for Denmark.
Around nine months after the influx in autumn 2015, a report on Politiken forecast the births of 1,200 more Danish babies than the previous year.
A link between the increase and the viral video campaigns could not be confirmed but Spies praised the joint efforts for “securing the future of Denmark” in its latest effort - "Do it Forever" - saying it had now noticed a new problem.
Using the example of Karen and Jørgen, it shows a couple whose sex life has drained away after having a children, leaving them sitting in the bed where they once “couldn’t keep their hands off each other” staring at separate tablets.
“It turns out that Danish couples have much less sex after having children,” the voiceover says.
“This continues throughout life and affects both health and life expectancy.”
Claiming sex can extend life by up to eight years and provide a range of health benefits, the travel agency’s advert invites parents on cut-price holidays to exotic locations where they can reignite the spark.
It is running a Do It Forever Loyalty Programme, complete with a Fertility Bonus giving added discounts per child “as compensation for everyone who had their sex live ruined” by becoming parents.
“You don’t stop having sex because you get old - you get old because you stop having sex,” the advert concludes.
“Do it for your health, for your children and your grandchildren. Do it for Denmark. Do it forever.”
Fertility and sex campaigns have been running in Denmark and other European countries with falling birth rates in recent years, aiming to reverse the trend.
Denmark’s national fertility rate stood at 1.69 in 2014, a small increase over 2013 and the first time that year-end numbers have been up since 2010, The Local reports.
The average age for becoming a first-time parent in Denmark is 29.1 years, a full five years older than in 1970, and up to 10 per cent of all children born in the country are conceived using fertility treatment.
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