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Ferre
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 Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 1:30 pm Post subject: Are Anti-Drug Ads Effective? |
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The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy on Oct. 4 chose a new advertising agency, Foote Cone & Belding, to lead its $200 million-per-year anti-drug advertising effort aimed at parents and children.
The previous agency, Ogilvy & Mather, was accused of overbilling the government, but that's hardly the only controversy dogging the government's six-year-old anti-drug ad effort.
The ONDCP, headed by federal drug czar John Walters, spends its ad budget buying time, space, and public-relation services for anti-drug ads and promotions warning youngsters about the ills of pot, ecstasy, glue-sniffing, and other such substances. The agency also urges parents to monitor kids for drug use. For each ad paid the ONDCP buys with tax dollars, media companies contribute a matching ad.
It sounds like a public-service "slam dunk" in current Beltway-speak, but the General Accounting Office and Congress are studying whether any link can be made between the ads and declining drug use. So far, the only study that tried to assess this found no connection and concluded that the campaign may actually backfire: The more ads some kids see, the more likely they are to try pot.
DECLINING USE. Now that the review for a new ad agency is over, the ONDCP plans to look for a new research firm to study and track parents and children who are exposed to the ads. In the case of parents, researchers will look for evidence that those who see the ads are more likely to have "the talk" with their children about the dangers of taking drugs.
That research for the past five years has been led by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Friction has arisen between the ONDCP and the researchers, however, since the Annenberg School hasn't been able to find a link between seeing the ads and declining drug use -- which the White House is seeking to justify re-funding the effort.
Walters is convinced, based on other indicators, that it's a worthy campaign. "Fewer teens are using drugs because of the deliberate and serious messages they have received about the dangers of drugs from their parents, leaders, and prevention efforts like our National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign," he says, pointing to a Health & Human Services Dept. survey showing an overall 11% decline in drug use by 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in 2002-03.
"RUBE GOLDBERG" STUDY? But Walters' own special assistant, David Murray, opens the door for more doubt. "We are getting great benefits, but we aren't sure we have anything to do with it," says Murray. Tobacco and alcohol consumption have fallen among teens, too, but the ONDCP campaign doesn't address smoking or alcohol.
Murray adds, however, that teasing out the media campaign's contribution to national drug-use trends is "extraordinarily tough...and no one is held to that standard in any other government program." Murray termed the previous five-year tracking study directed by the Annenberg School as "Rube Goldberg."
Robert C. Hornik, who directed the study for the school until last January, contends it "was the results [the government] didn't like," not the study or its methodology. He points out that the ONDCP approved Annenberg's methodology. Furthermore, he notes, the agency didn't dispute the study's finding that parents exposed to the ads were more likely to talk to their kids about drug use and more closely monitor their behavior. The reason? "That finding was what they were looking for," says Hornik.
POLITICAL UNDERTONES. The ONDCP got into anti-drug marketing after private media companies cut back on the number of free public-service ads they do. The ONDCP lobbied for funds to go commercial in 1997 after then-crug czar Barry McCaffrey became incensed over a medical-marijuana ballot initiative that passed in California.
However, the campaign's often-political undertones have repeatedly stoked controversy. McCaffrey, for instance, got into trouble for allowing, without telling Congress, TV stations to provide their advertising match with anti-drug story lines in shows such as ER instead of actual ads. The public wasn't informed that the stories were indirectly influenced by a financial commitment from the White House, and legislators who backed the program were incensed.
The campaign was further politicized in 2002 when the ONDCP stated its intent to run $96 million in ads during and just after the midterm election. The ads' main focus is anti-marijuana messages aimed at state ballot initiatives for drug-policy reform. Such direct intervention in state politics drew fire from both Democrats and Republicans.
TARGETING CANDIDATES. Despite the controversy, Walters shows little sign of backing down. He has made it clear in speeches that he plans to continue using the power of his office to defeat state drug-policy reform initiatives. And last year, the bill to reauthorize $1 billion in public money as part of the $2 billion five-year campaign was derailed in the Senate after the GOP leadership slipped vague language into the bill that could have allowed the ONDCP to target specific political candidates not in sync with White House drug policy.
Politics aside, Bob Deniston, deputy director of the ONDCP campaign, says he believes a new tracking study will validate the ads and a change in creative strategy that began in 2002, which the new ad agency is expected to support. The latest ads aimed at youngsters, created by several ad agencies under the direction of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, shift from depicting damage self-inflicted by marijuana and chemical inhalants (i.e. a brain-damaged teenager being fed baby food by his mother) to depicting accountability and consequence.
One ad shows stoned teenagers running down a kid on a bike. "Young kids think they are invulnerable [to hurting themselves]...so we are targeting their view of the world," says Deniston. The big questions now: Will the White House buy into that notion? And how many people will believe the new studies when they come out?
Note: The government has yet to prove that its $200 million-a-year media campaign is effective, leading to all sorts of carping.
Kiley is Marketing editor for BusinessWeek in New York
Source: Business Week (US)
Author: David Kiley
Published: October 5, 2004
Copyright: 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Contact: bwreader@businessweek.com
Website: http://www.businessweek.com/
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Officer
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 05 Nov 2004
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Location: Upstate New York
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| Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 9:25 am Post subject: Anti-Drug Ads |
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| In all honesty, I tend to view all anti-drug adds as specifically aimed at cannabis. Usually I give the commercial the finger (or two) and as long as it is available (which it is not right now) I get closer to god with the sacred sacrament. |
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Mystic Power
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| Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 2:27 pm Post subject: |
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I'll agree...the "War on Drugs" is, mainly, a war on cannabis.
Follow Your Bliss,
Ben
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Fyrefly1
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| Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 8:12 pm Post subject: |
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I also agree.
The feds work under the mistaken assumption that Cannabis is a starter or 'gateway' drug and that people (kids) that buy pot are automatically shown the 'harder stuff'.
In my experience that scenario couldn't be further from the truth, although I concede that I really don't know what goes on in the Big City neighborhoods.....
It's in the burbs that the vast majority of kids live and there are enough of 'us' in the burbs to de-select any pushers that actually would try to do that.
Dealers aren't stupid. They know that if they tried foolish things like trying to sell kids the hard stuff they would be taken out by the rest of us.....
Just another attempt by gov't to lump all Cannabis users into one teeming, ignorant mass that deserves to be protected from itself.....
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Romadon
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| Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 10:10 pm Post subject: |
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I'll see if I can remember the scenario that led up to me smoking pot before I got into the heavy stuff.
I think my initiation to Marlboro cigarettes and black coffee came while in high school (during truancy) and hanging out at Tony's Pool Hall. Somewhere in there I was introduced to getting drunk on beer. Then I believe came the inhalation of Testor's model cement whereby one of my experiences thereof led to me going into a blackout and starring at a concrete wall for 3 or 4 hours before resuming consciences.
I also became an avid pill popper and speed freak. I'm not sure when it was, in the timeline, that did my first LSD, but possibly before I even smoked my first pot. I kept hearing all this talk about people seeing God and was already pretty well fed up with the organized church scene and everyone and everything around me that I loved was getting sick and dying or going to Nam and being killed so I figured, what had I to lose, anyway.
That doesn't even make sense, how in Hell can anyone who squirts 3 tubes a whack of Testors into a baggy and be breathing it like they're on a respirator be worried about the effect some microscopic pill may or may not have on them. Like I say I'm all messed up on the timeline and it will require some heavy and lengthy solitary meditation to get it back into perspective so in the meantime I guess an approximation of the circumstances will have to suffice. I never was any good at times or dates, therefore flunking History in school.
To make a long story short it seems that somewhere along the line all these things were a gateway that led to me smoking the dreadful Cannabis which also had a effect on me like no other of these chemicals or drugs as she always seemed to give me exactly what I needed and never lied to me as many of these other things did.
I loved acid though as I had many enlightening and spiritual experiences with her and she was my candy for awhile but Cannabis always brought me back to earth and leveled out my Karma which could be very unpleasant at times but I always knew she told the truth and that it was for my own good.
Many times I believe it was more ignorance on my part or distrust (or too much trust) of the people I was with at the time that led to my problems. I'm not sure I ever really did understand the proper procedure for smoking pot.
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Fyrefly1
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| Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 11:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Many times I believe it was more ignorance on my part or distrust (or too much trust) of the people I was with at the time that led to my problems. I'm not sure I ever really did understand the proper procedure for smoking pot. |
Nobody does cuz there isn't any!
The feds say there is but what do they know....they're all smoke and mirrors anyway...
I too was way too trusting of people of dubious character and was ripped off more than once. Duh, I was much too naive at the time.
Speaking of naivete, shouldn't we be trusting that our kids will know what to do if we "share our lives with them" instead of assuming that they're stupid and need to be led and protected like sheep...?
Won't they be much more inclined to respect us parents and G'parents if we level with them and tell them the truth...?
I think they can handle it because, they're our kids, right?
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"All truth passes through three stages: first it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as self-evident."
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Lilli
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| Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2004 1:11 am Post subject: |
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| I think they can handle it because, they're our kids, right? |
Absolutely and positively right.
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Romadon
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| Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2004 4:59 am Post subject: |
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Well, I certainly hope I'm not being misleading or putting any ideas in the minds of young people they haven't or wouldn't come up with on their own. The main thing I can say for the gateway thing is I believe Cannabis may be a gate alright but not a gate to other drugs or harder drugs. Their is no other substance I have ever messed with that has ever kicked my ass to the same degree as Senorita Kanna Bossum can and will if she wants to.
In my book Cannabis is the hard stuff. Well, aside from drinking bleach or ammonia, chewing and swallering tobacco, etc. Yeh, it's no wonder the feds is terrified of her. I mean look what she did to Arnold Schwarzenegger, and how much did he smoke?
Yes kiddies ya better leave Miss Kanna alone and stick to the hard stuff like the feds want ya too if ya know what's good for ya. Whoop that ass now. I'm a tellin ya. She bad. Uh-Huh. Be lock up that chest she gets pissed. Please misses maam, Iz sorry. Please let me breathe. My head be fix-un to splode. I be your good boy now misses mamma. I do anything you ask.
Coarse, don't take my word for it, cause most all what I ever smoked proly be ditch weed anyway.
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Last edited by Romadon on Fri Nov 26, 2004 8:11 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Romadon
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| Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2004 5:14 am Post subject: |
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| Fyrefly1 wrote: |
Speaking of naivete, shouldn't we be trusting that our kids will know what to do if we "share our lives with them" instead of assuming that they're stupid and need to be led and protected like sheep...?
Won't they be much more inclined to respect us parents and G'parents if we level with them and tell them the truth...?
I think they can handle it because, they're our kids, right? |
Well, you know how it goes Fly, there are many people who proly feel your' not even qualified to be a parent, and maybe they should raise your kids for you. Wonder how'd they'd like to make sure all there needs are supplied and they get the best education possible and that they are provided with all the same opportunities many of them or their own children may have or have had. Bet they'd be singing a different tune then, like, "Oh my! Maybe abortion should be legal after all." I'm not going to take on the responsibility of these little heathens. They're not my' problem. Maybe we should just lock them all up right along with there heathen parents.
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Fyrefly1
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| Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2004 7:28 am Post subject: |
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Amen to that!
I raised 4 fine young men that all took the chance to go college and none of them even dropped out.
Forgive me for being proud but I, ahem....am!
And, with all the mistakes my wife and I made, theystill turned out just fine....
All it takes is a little lovin......
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Fyrefly1
"All truth passes through three stages: first it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as self-evident."
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Romadon
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| Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2004 7:42 am Post subject: |
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| Fyrefly1 wrote: |
Forgive me for being proud but I, ahem....am!
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Hey, that's great news and I'm glad to hear it brother Fly. I think you have every right to be a proud father. Sounds like quite an accomplishment to me and I'm proud of you too brother.
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Romadon
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| Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2004 8:22 am Post subject: |
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| Romadon wrote: |
Be lock up that chest she gets pissed.
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Not really. Sweet Sister Kanna have nothing to do with those kinds of things, she only try to put me back right and it been so long since I rended my heart or chest I forget how to breath.
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Fyrefly1
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| Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2004 10:23 am Post subject: |
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Romie....
You really iz awreet!!!
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Fyrefly1
"All truth passes through three stages: first it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as self-evident."
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Romadon
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| Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2004 6:02 pm Post subject: |
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Wouldn't ya think a person should remember the first beer or shot of whiskey they ever drank? I mean I'm quite sure I remember the first  I ever smoked, although it's not a really vivid memory only parts of it maybe. How can someone's timeline get so twisted like that. 
Shit keeps up this why I'll wind up growing old and dying before I get born. Maybe then I'll qualify as born again. 
A person sure otta remember their first sexual encounter with the opposite sex. I do sort of remember when me and some my friends was playing spin the bottle one time and this one girl I thought I really liked was there.
Well I wound up getting to kiss her but I'd never kissed a girl before and I was really terrified. When it was over she said to me that kissing me was like kissing a stone wall. That was a real ego booster. 
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Fyrefly1
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| Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2004 6:14 pm Post subject: |
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I don't remember the first drink I had but, I do remember the time we smoked about 4 s of Acapulco Gold at a party and I didn't get high although all my friends were totally blitzed!
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Fyrefly1
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