The government has posted nine anitdrug PSAs to the video-sharing site Youtube, along with a three-part video of the SAMSHA's September press conference about the results of the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
The PSAs, predictably, are receiving low ratings by viewers — one to one and a half stars. Cynics will mock the effort ("Yes, YouTube is where the kids are so perhaps this will spread the anti-drug message further," says Ad Rants). And at least one of the PSAs requires that you register and certify that you are over 18 because some wise guy has flagged it for "possible inappropriate content."
I don't know how effective the ads are quantitatively. But if they make a few teens think twice about using drugs, they've done their job at no extra expense.
Nora Volkow, the head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, has herself said that anti-drug programs that attempt to scare teens may inadvertently spur drug experimentation.
"It is that notion of 'I dare you,'" she says. "It may be appealing to an adolescent because they are seeking for danger in many instances."
These ads are not like the old "scrambled eggs/this is your brain of drugs," however. They talk about peer pressure, and getting lazy and boring when you smoke pot. One, in fact, goes out of its way to dispel the reefer-madness myths of the past. Here's the transcript:
I smoked weed and nobody died.
I didn't get into a car accident, I didn't O.D. on heroin the next day, nothing happened.
(Shot widens to show the guy with two friends sitting on the couch)
We sat on Pete's couch for 11 hours.
Now what's going to happen on Pete's couch? Nothing.
(Shot now shows the guys on the couch in the middle of the woods with some mountain bikers riding by. Then to a basketball court. Then an ice rink.)
You have a better shot of dying out there in the real world, driving hard to the rim, ice skating with a girl. No, you wanna keep yourself alive, go over to Pete's and sit on his couch til you're 86.
Safest thing in the world.
(Shot now shows the guys on the couch outside a movie theater. The guy talking gets up from the couch and walks into the theater)
Me? I'll take my chances out there. Call me reckless.
Heavy-handed? Perhaps. Not too many effective ads aren't. And I don't expect it will set a record for views, or catch a viral fever. But if it plants the idea that weed is a waste of time in some kids' heads, it will have succeeded.
(A MSNBC interview with Dr. Volkow, the great-grand daughter of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsy, is a good read, by the way.)
--
Previous entry: Boredom | Next entry: Carrick's Gleam
The Elephant on Main Street © 2005, 2006, 2007 Thom Forbes