Below are some new anti-drug ads from the US drug Czar's office, that spoof newspaper job ads of the past (click to see full size pdf - 1meg). I actually think these are quite amusing, and saying that being stoned all the time is a pretty lame may well have more impact than 'just say no' type messages, or shock horror scare tactics (In Austrialia they tried an even more direct approach with the 'pot could turn you into a dick head' campaign) . That said, I suspect these new posters are a bit too clever-cloggsy-ad-agency-ironic for there own good and may well actually end up above the sofa in student flats as the subject of much postmodern stoner hilarity.
Friday, November 07, 2008
Ironic new US anti-pot ads
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4 comments:
These are very funny but I don't think they will have any impact at all on people's drug consumption. That's not how media messages work. There's well over 50 years of research on all this - you'd think they'd have learnt by now.
I'm inclined to agree with what drug-war-rant says. In afew months they'll be so popular among pot-smokers that Police will consider their ownership as evidence of drug use.
The problem with drug messages is they usually don't live up to the reality of the situation. Young people inevitably get exposed to drugs at some point in their lives and it quickly becomes apparent that the anti-drugs messages aren't giving them the full picture - and so they ignore all the messages, even the accurate ones.
This reminds me of the old 1930s/40s American 'Reefer Madness' posters, which I have certainly seen in student houses as an ironic joke. They're not going to affect people's drug use, but they're pretty funny :)
You have to wonder about the young advertising executives and graphic designers who got this commission. Quite likely they are or were casual tokers, or know someone.
Morally speaking, they ought to turn down the commission. That's hard to do in a recession, when your customer is the Federal government with endlessly deep pockets and much future work.
Maybe they designed something instead which is knowing, funny and ironic.
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