What’s wrong with this picture? Conspicuously absent from the discussion are simmering concerns about the Meth Project’s shock-and-awe approach, as well as unfavorable data the campaign has collected through commissioned surveys about its own impact. Most observers seem all too eager to latch onto the Montana Meth Project as a stylish solution to a difficult problem, though some are starting to question that popular logic.
I remember a near-identical ad I liked better, probably because it lacked the artsy video editing and the uplifting “I’m outta here” ending. The main character (who looked in his mid-twenties) talked about “nothing” had happened to him after smoking pot in high school and the ad ended with the character’s off-camera mother calling down to the basement asking if he had looked for a job that day. He hastily waved away the reefer smoke and started to recite what was no doubt yet another time-buying excuse. The narrator said, more or less, “Pot. Nothing’ll happen to you, either.”
Shoot, we have a name for them: Speed Whores. Selling their iPod? They didn’t have a fucking iPod to sell. Getting kicked out of college? Right, they never graduated high school. Are the ads realistic? Not really. Most of the speed whores around here don’t have that many teeth, but then again most aren’t all beat to shit. Cousin to the Crack Whore.
Drugs must not be too bad, the gubmint is telling us not to do them so that means they are really lying about it. Thing is, some of us see this shit every day. Our experiences don’t matter, the plural of anecdote not being data and all that. If you speak out against drugs, you are just some fundie right-winger who wants to deny the masses access to the good life. Heard it all. Seen it. Actually been there, done that.
So go tell everybody that what is portrayed in these ads is right-wing hyperbole, it doesn’t really happen. The fact that I’ve seen it as real doesn’t matter. Just keep telling yourself that it’s propaganda, that’s the answer.
Actually, meth really is that bad. It’s viciously addictive, physically devastating and causes clinical paranoia and psychosis. It’s physically more destructive than cocaine or heroin and harder to kick and it literally makes people crazy and violent. Meth is the one drug where the commercials are not exaggerated. The very real dangers of meth are the reason that anti-pot propaganda is so stupid and dangerous (even the “pot makes you lazy” meme is a load of crap).
A guy I went to junior high with was arrested a few years back. Seems that after a three day long meth binge he decided to break into what he thought was his estranged girlfriend’s home for the purpose of strangling the 2-year-old child they had together. Why? Because he thought it was the Antichrist. Turns out, he broke into the wrong house and began choking a different kid.
The ads will not work. People go into the world and lie to themselves. The first lie they say, when they witness someone experiencing FUBAR, is, “That won’t happen to me!!!”
The next lie is, “Things can’t possibly get worse!!!” And they do. Many people never come back. Been there, done that, made it back.
Pride and arrogance are what kills.
One minor hijack: Meth wishes it could ruin the lives that ethyl alcohol has ruined. It’s got a long way to go.
First of all, I’m not saying that drugs are good, or that anyone who speaks out against them is a wacky, or anything of the sort.
But it’s not like flipping a switch. You don’t instantly go from “normal, functional person” to “homeless, toothless strung-out junky.” I don’t deny that it happens and I don’t deny that when it does it can happen fast, but there are in fact intermediate steps.
(And believe me: I know drugs are bad. Someone I used to know [and in fact looked up to as a kid] developed a coke habit. I didn’t see the descent, so to speak, but ran into him post-prison and post-rehab. If I believed in a soul I’d say that drugs destroy your soul; as it is I just believe they completely fuck you up and there’s no going back afterwards.)
Way to miss the point. The point isn’t that meth is hunky dory, it’s that Da Man has lost all credibility by running the same ads (or substantially the same scare tactics) about other drugs, most especially marijuana (and tobacco), which even the most ardent anti-drug person would not put in the same class as meth. They’ve poisoned the well against themselves, by being hysterical and reactionary about the little stuff, they have no weapon against the big stuff.
Da Man is still missing the boat (if the boat is trying to prevent meth use among kids who haven’t tried it yet but are at risk for doing so) by showing them far off consequences instead of the sooner and more likely to happen ones. You don’t start out sucking cock for meth, you start out selling your iPod for meth and lying to your folks about it. That’s a more immediate consequence that might actually affect some bored kid considering trying meth. (Probably not, but more likely than what they’ve chosen.)
I understand that meth is a serious problem - I had my own experience to learn that (not doing meth, but it’s a long story involving a meth-lab, a bus driver, and the kids that lived next door to the lab, and me, the assistant that rode the bus everyday).
I get what people are saying about how it is really that bad, but the fact that they ran commercials showing less harmful drugs as ridiculously harmful will make viewers question the reliability here, and that doesn’t help matters. Maybe there is something to the desensitization of youth…and adults…
but serious, was anyone else kind of confused about this video. I gathered from the bottom of the page comments that he is on meth and the parents won’t let him in, but it took 3-4 times watching it, whereas the others made sense on first view. Just curious…
Nope, got it the first time. Maybe it’s because I grew up near a lot of meth, but it made total sense to me.
I’ve done a lot of drugs (not so much meth) and while I was really into them I behaved in ways that were pretty despicable. My parents were cool enough to basically behave in the ways described in the video - when you’re not f-ed up, you can come into our house, etc.
So I was never at the point of our protagonist, where trying to kick your way in seemed a good idea, but I got the point of the ad.
My sister was into meth for a while. Luckily she managed to get away from it before the hardships set in.
Those ads leave a sinking feeling in my stomach. After junior year at my slightly run down suburban high school my friends and I split two ways. On graduation day, some of us were bright healthy eighteen year olds resplendent in our gowns and chattering about our futures. The others were on the sidelines wishing us well, ninty pounds each, covered in weeping sores and rotting teeth. My friends should have been there with me getting their diploma. Goddamn that drug for stealing so many people I loved.
I actually think this could be helpful, and this is why:
High school girls get positive reinforcement for doing speed.
When you are on speed, you lose weight. It’s dramatic and people notice. And when girls lose weight, they get praised. Teachers, parents, everyone. All kinds of authority figures that you probably never got attention from.
But there is that dark dreadful knowledge, deep in your heart, that if you stop doing speed, you are going to gain that weight and the praise will go away.
Remember what it was like to be a teenage girl? This stuff is pretty important to them.
It doesn’t even take a year to look like a wreck. But by the time you get ugly you are too addicted to care. But maybe, just maybe, knowing how ugly you are going to get (and they all did get ugly) might push a few girls over that edge. I know looking at my friends crusted over faces, limp hair and jerky movements was enough to keep me from ever trying it.
There are other initial positive side effects to speed as well. At first, you start doing your homework REALLY WELL because of the hyperfocus. You clean the house without being asked and your parents love it. Chances are your sleeping with your dealer, which for many girls (especially formerly overweight insecure girls) is the first real male attention they get. It all compounds to make a compelling reason for why to stay on- above and beyond any of the effects of the high. Any anti-meth campaign has to address these issues.
My sister-in-law states that the ads are not going to work… as a former member of the Montana meth-doing crowd, she knows their mindset. Her opinion is like many here… that nobody believes that they are going to end up that messed up. She ended up owing money to her dealer, and got to spend a weekend handcuffed to a strange girl while the dealer kept waving a gun in their faces before she realized how dangerously out of control her life had gotten.
She got out via a “Geographical Fix” and is now clean (mostly… still smokes weed on occasion) and has a brand new baby.
I fully intend to use her experiences on my children, when they are of age. Scary stuff.
What I want to know is do ads like that actually achieve anything?
Irish television has various graphic ads warning of the dangers of drink driving and speeding etc and ads about alcohol abuse and ads about the damage cigarettes do to you and there was a hilarious campaign about food poisoning a while back. These ads are on tv with near-comic frequency. Here’s an example of a speeding kills advert. Lots of these ads of this type exist and I wonder every time I see them whether they are effective at anything other than making people watching their favourite programmes squirm.
But not on this particular issue. Meth is a dangerous drug. It isn’t an automatic death sentence. Either is Russian Roulette. I wouldn’t play THAT game either.
I’m not sure how to define “ads like that”. I know the public service program run by the March of Dimes called “Back to Sleep” worked. Or at least, the incidence of SIDS was reduced dramatically in the 10 (15?) years since it went into effect - so much so that they’ve now dropped SIDS as their cause du jour and are now tackling premature birth.
So yes, some PSA’s (in conjunction with other outreach facets, like pamphlets and education) do work for some issues.
The Roads and Traffic Authority here has started a TV campaign against speeding, burn-outs, etc, aimed at young male drivers. There’s not a single wrecked car to be seen in the whole campaign, but rather images of women standing on the footpath, waggling their little fingers in a “small penis” gesture, and rolling their eyes.
The RTA has acknowledged that this is because the community is basically desensitised to the shock campaigns of the last fifteen or so years.