Drug PSAs are hard. People need advice and information on drugs, obviously, but screaming ‘Just Say No!’ at kids is just condescending. Remember that time the Ninja Turtles, Duck Tales and Bugs Bunny teamed up to fight a marijuana demon? That probably turned more kids onto drugs.
Yet it’s 2015, and drug PSAs can still be wildly out of touch. The New South Wales government have unveiled these bizarre anti-weed promos that feature teenager stoners as bumbling anthropomorphic sloths, flunking exams and knocking over the salt. The website for the campaign is even more cringe-worthy, with a faux-Tumblr vibe and awkward use of internet phrases like ‘That moment when…” and “The struggle is real”. Someone’s mom really doesn’t want to you to get high.
And it’s not just us making fun of it. Another anti-drugs body has already distanced itself from the campaign. The National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre (NCPI) was initially asked to consult on the adverts, but after seeing the final versions have released statement disowning them. “In this case, those general recommendations were things like being aware that teenagers are intelligent and have access to a lot of information, so campaign approaches should respect them and give them credit by avoiding hyperbole.”
[via The Guardian]
