Anti-Drug Advertisements

Have you recently seen any anti-drug advertisements on television? I feel as though every time I turn on the television I see anti-drug advertisements and most are different and ever changing. I have seen a variety of different anti-drug, anti-drinking, anti-smoking, etc. advertisements in the last couple of days and certain components of each have captured my attention.

First of all, I noticed that each of the anti-drug advertisements targets a different audience. During the Superbowl an anti-drug commercial aired that involved a dirty looking man (the drug dealer) saying that sales are down and business is decreasing. This decrease was because kids no longer need a drug dealer when they can just go in their parent’s medicine cabinets and get high off of their prescription drugs for free. The commercial ends with the drug dealer saying that next time something goes wrong parents can’t blame him because it is their fault (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY5Css5U82E). This commercial is primarily targeted at parents. Another commercial involves a teenage girl walking to school when she gets an embarrassing picture message of herself from the recent party she attended. What’s worse everyone else around her has received the same picture message. What’s even worse is that she does not have any recollection of this party because she was so drunk. This advertisement is targeted at teenage females. Another similar advertisement includes a teenage boy who took a girl to a party the night before where he took part in smoking pot. The next morning he calls his friend and asks what happened that night because he has no recollection and the friend says he abandoned the girl and that they are no longer friends. This advertisement is targeted at teenage males. In addition to this, I saw an anti-drug ad campaign that used cartoon like graphics that showed a stick figure kid doing drugs and he asks his dog if he wants a hit. The dog replies by saying, "you disappoint me" and walks away (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPs2pm4eKW8). Commercials like this are targeted at smaller children, namely preteens and younger.

Secondly, I noticed that each of the anti-drug commercials has something different that captures ones attention when watching television. I saw one anti-tobacco commercial that had a man with a tracheotomy hole in his neck singing that you do not always die from tobacco. This commercial was a little disturbing and I am sure it captured a lot of people’s attention (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRHvZazd4IM). There are other anti-drug commercials that use an animal to communicate the message about how their owner has changed as a result of their use of drugs and alcohol, which captures many peoples attentions. Many of these anti-drug commercials and ad campaigns use testimonials of people who have had life altering events happen to them as a result of drug and/or alcohol use. I believe that these testimonials make the advertisements appeal to people and capture people’s attention on a personal level and makes them think about what is being said. As a result of this, anti-drug campaigns are effective forms of advertisements.