No More Terrorist/Drug Commercials!

Lost Cause

It's a wrap!
Joined
Oct 7, 2001
Posts
30,949
What a waste of my money, finally they cut these bullshit PSAs.

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- The White House anti-drug office will end its controversial drugs-and-terror advertising campaign and, in a reversal, shift more of its $150 million budget toward children's media as it fights for Congress to extend the program another five years.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy will also cease a polarizing $8 million annual study that found the ads aimed at youth were not working and that pitted the drug office against the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

Youth-oriented media
Now, the office will direct 60% of its buys toward youth-oriented media -- the same percentage it had previously directed at adults -- and will focus on halting drug use among children already using rather than aim to deter youth from starting drugs. The drugs-and-terror ads will end in May.

The drugs-and-terror campaign first broke five months after the Sept. 11 attacks, with two Super Bowl ads that cost the drug office more than $3 million to run. The spots centered on the idea that people who purchase drugs help fund terrorism. One ad showed a shopping list that includes an AK-47 rifle. "Where do terrorists get their money?" said the voice-over. "If you buy drugs, some of it might come from you." Later ads replaced "terrorism" with "terror," suggesting drug buys supported drug-cartel attacks on innocent civilians.

Ogilvy & Mather controversy
The ads were controversial not only because of their message, but because of the way they were produced. While almost all White House Office of National Drug Control Policy creative comes from the Partnership, the terrorism ads were produced outside the Partnership by the drug office's agency, WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather.

The Partnership said the ads were off-strategy and refused to do any of the spots. Partnership Vice Chairman Allen Rosenshine, chairman-CEO of Omnicom Group's BBDO Worldwide, ripped the campaign in a congressional hearing.

Spending cuts
The battle, coming to a drug office already wounded by complaints over Ogilvy's initial stewardship of the account, bolstered congressional critics who tried to cut spending dramatically. They eventually reduced it by about $25 million to about $150 million.

Legislation to continue the program is expected to soon be proposed by a bipartisan group of senators. Reps. Mark Souder, R-Ind., chairman of the Government Reform panel, and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said last week that it would likely include language limiting the drug office's ability to go outside the Partnership for creative and also language that could require the drug office to rebid the contract won last year by Ogilvy.


This is Lost Cause.....this Lost Cause on Literotica. :D
 
Th-th-there, There's! There's Somthing happening here!
If only myhead were clear!
And if I had listened to what momma told me
When she told me not to come
Then I wouldn't be here cyring Gawd Damn
Gawd damn the p_p_usher Man...
 
For a group fighting drug abuse, "the Partnership" has taken cash from some odd parties, including American Brands (Jim Beam whisky), Philip Morris (Marlboro and Virginia Slims cigarettes, Miller beer), Anheuser Busch (Budweiser, Michelob, Busch beer), R.J. Reynolds (Camel, Salem, Winston cigarettes), as well as pharmaceutical firms Bristol Meyers-Squibb, Merck & Company and Proctor & Gamble (Marin Institute Backgrounder, 2/97).

They dont care about you, just your money and their investors money. "The Partnership" maintains that "reducing poverty, improving schools, strengthening families, and providing programs to enhance students’ social and academic skills" are "infeasible and misguided" ways to fight drugs. Drug abuse is "solely the result of individual choice," and the only messages the Partnership advances are "stay in school" and "stay off drugs."
Thus the drug war’s implicit message: Don’t be a loser "child" who smokes pot. Be a mature grownup and puff Marlboros, chase Jim Beam with a Bud, and mellow with Valium.
 
Thank God.

NOBODY believed them. The worst is when W cited how well they worked - one small group of 12 year olds had a single digit percentage drop in drug use. HOT DIGGITY DAMN! That's worth 150m!
 
Miles_Cassidy said:
For a group fighting drug abuse, "the Partnership" has taken cash from some odd parties…They dont care about you, just your money and their investors money. "The Partnership" maintains that "reducing poverty, improving schools, strengthening families, and providing programs to enhance students’ social and academic skills" are "infeasible and misguided" ways to fight drugs. Drug abuse is "solely the result of individual choice," and the only messages the Partnership advances are "stay in school" and "stay off drugs."

Thus the drug war’s implicit message: Don’t be a loser "child" who smokes pot. Be a mature grownup and puff Marlboros, chase Jim Beam with a Bud, and mellow with Valium.

Misguided? What's misguided about having a strong family? A dysfunctional family, or worse, one with a drug abuser in it is more liable to foster and encourage drug usage. Not that "The Partnership" would care about that. Have you noticed that the commercials only care about teens doing drugs but couldn't give a damn about adults doing drugs? All the ads are aimed at teens. What happened to the anti-drug campaigns concerning adults?
 
Chicklet said:
i guess they realize that we're lost causes = )

Hear hear, Chicklet! To say it differently, they probably realized that adults would see those ads as a cynical manipulation of our patriotism, an attempt to make us feel that choosing to use drugs was in some way besmirching the memories of those who died on 9/11.

That's right, I said "besmirching". I have no shame.

(BTW, it's an honor to post on any thread that contains both Chicklet and Mlies_Cassidy)
 
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