The Affordable Care Act is good for young adults because it鈥檒l save them money on health care, leaving them more to spend on liquor and birth control. That鈥檚 one way to interpret the message from a provocative new ad campaign in Colorado. Not everyone is thrilled with it.
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In a federal , Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo.,聽showed Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius .
Gardner asked, 鈥淒o you agree with this kind of advertising for Obamacare?鈥�
Sebelius responded that she couldn鈥檛 see it.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a college student doing a keg stand,鈥� Gardner replied. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a pretty big picture of a keg.鈥�
Alcohol features prominently in several ads in the campaign that upset Gardner. They all to learn more about the federal health care law.聽 But they鈥檙e not from the White House, or any agency Sebelius controls.
Two nonprofit groups in Denver put them together, and the one Adam Fox works for, . Fox, 28, says they only had about $5,000 to spend and wanted to grab some eyeballs on social media.
鈥淲e wanted to make sure that we got at least a few seconds of their recognition,鈥� he says.
Mission accomplished. Within a few days of posting them on Facebook and Twitter, the ads made the leap from social media to the news media.
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen a huge response, positive and negative,鈥� Fox says. 鈥淪ome people aren鈥檛 big fans of the ads, but some are, and we鈥檝e seen just a huge amount of website traffic and a lot of social media shares of the images themselves.鈥�
The ads dangle alcohol and sex in front of young people to bait them into clicking on a link to the decidedly unsexy topic of health insurance.
There鈥檚 the keg stand ad, one with women in yoga clothes , and聽another where young ladies drink 鈥� this is, after all, Colorado.
, though, is the ad featuring a young woman with a man on her arm and a package of birth control pills in her hand, with the copy: 鈥淥MG, he鈥檚 hot! Let鈥檚 hope he鈥檚 as easy to get as this birth control. My health insurance covers the pill, which means all I have to worry about is getting him between the covers. I got insurance.鈥�
Fox says women were involved in coming up with the ads, but he knows they鈥檙e not for everybody. Conservatives and liberals both have called some of the ads sexist. Fox disagrees.
鈥淲omen are strong, independent human beings, capable of making their own decisions,鈥� he says.聽 鈥淎nd birth control is just an important aspect of basic health care.鈥�
Laura Welp is a 32-year-old part-time student in Denver. She says she鈥檚 got her own reasons to want to learn more about Obamacare, and that an ad with a hot guy in it isn鈥檛 really a motivator.
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 appeal to me. The interest for me in Obamacare is that I think I can get cheaper insurance and I think it鈥檚 going to get more people insurance,鈥� she says.
But Rachel Cain, who鈥檚 also 32, likes them.
鈥淚 was describing my reaction to them to somebody else on Facebook who thought that they were terrible,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 think they鈥檙e hilarious and right to the point. They鈥檙e perfect for the audience. I鈥檝e done a keg stand. And I鈥檝e also done ski shots.鈥�
If the health law is going to work, people like Welp and Cain need to sign up for coverage.聽 Lots of need to enroll in new coverage to balance out the people who will have higher health costs.聽 Adam Fox, who launched the ads aimed at young people, says they鈥檙e disproportionately uninsured now and that they need to know more about the 聽affordable options that the law offers them. He鈥檚 unapologetic if some are offended.
鈥淲e鈥檝e started a huge conversation about a lot of the different reasons to have health insurance,鈥� he says.
Fox says to expect ads aimed at young families in the near future.
This story is part of a reporting partnership between and Kaiser Health News.