On Aug. 31 the Italian ministry of health launched a new campaign for a nation wide “Fertility Day” to encourage young women to get pregnant. Fertility Day was set to be Sept. 22 but, due to reactions marking the campaign offensive, it was retracted.

Alongside the campaign, several ads were released to further encourage Italian women to become mothers. One ad in particular features a woman holding an hourglass with the phrase, “La bellezza non ha età. La fertilità sì,” which translates to, “Beauty has no age. Fertility does.”

Despite Italy’s low birthrate of 1.37 children per woman, the lowest in Europe, these ads were seen as inappropriate in their push for a higher population. Eventually, Beatrice Lorenzin, the health minister of Italy, canceled the campaign after viewing several negative responses on social media.“I am saddened that the launch of the advertising campaign misled many people. I withdrew it to change it,” Lorenzin said.