The Candie’s Foundation

As Neil Cole explains in this piece in the HuffPost, the goal of The Candie’s Foundation was to help teenagers to understand how hard it is to have a child and how life-altering the experience is. Neil Cole writes, “We are trying to break through all of the media clutter and make teens understand that having a child is difficult and will change your life forever.”
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Neil Cole describes in direct and clear language why he included Bristol Palin in the PSAs produced by The Candie’s Foundation and why it made sense and it was an important choice.  “The Candie’s Foundation chose Bristol Palin to join the foundation’s teen pregnancy prevention efforts because we knew she would generate tremendous attention for the issue.” stated Neil Cole.
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The Candie’s Foundation received a great deal of responses from the Bristol Palin PSAs. Neil Cole writes about the thought process behind the PSAs and the desire to tap into “the voice of a teen mom who has a platform” so that “the issue of teen pregnancy has been propelled into the national dialogue with striking force.” Read more to hear a detailed explanation by Neil Cole about the justification for hiring Bristol Palin.

What happens when you bring together a well-known teen mom Bristol Pain and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino? You get a great deal of discussion about teen pregnancy.
Neil Cole and The Candie’s Foundation were well-aware that their decision to bring these two together could be volatile. They brought them together for a video that has been viewed more than 1 million times because “Whether you like it or not, Bristol and Mike are current pop culture phenoms, and teens pay attention to them. While teens may or may not emulate them, in today’s hyper-digitized media world, their ability to cut through the clutter and capture teens’ attention is unique.”
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The Candie’s Foundation created an incredible national dialogue about teen pregnancy. Hosting a town hall meeting with Bristol Palin, Hayden Panettierre, Matt Garza, Ann Shoket, Sarah Brown and Neil Cole, The Candie’s Foundation moved the needle on the national conversation about teen pregnancy. As Neil Cole explains in this article for HuffPost, “When the question is asked, what does The Candie’s Foundation believe in — abstinence or safe sex? We believe the answer is both. Whether we, as Americans can agree on safe sex vs. abstinence is not the issue here; the issue is educating teens about pregnancy prevention.” Read more for the full story.