Mr Brian Beutler has a hilarious post about Public Service Announcments, which do seem to have gotten much creepier over the last few years. This, of course, immediately called to mind the best known PSA of my youth, which Mr Beutler is probably too young to remember:
My college roommate had a terrific poster of a plate of breakfast food, captioned: "This is your brain with home fries and a side order of bacon.
Don't forget the "this is your brain on heroin" sequel.
My favorite is Cartoon All-Stars Don't Do Drugs, where a character smokes marijuana and turns green.
I dunno. I _like_ fried eggs.
hah! Nobody is too young to remember that PSA, classic.
Wasn't there some study that showed that the heroin sequel with the attractive girl smashing up the kitchen actually *increased* drug use?
They tried one anti-weed PSA in which a group of kids sitting in a circle passes around a joint with no one taking a hit. The guy who started it (and ended up with it) just shrugs and puts it away.
This has always struck me as absurd, since the real response of any normal pot-smoking kid would have been, "More for me," before he takes a long drag.
Oh, and I had that "This is your brain on drugs with a side order of bacon" poster on my wall for years when I was a teenager.
Anyone remember the program where the government was paying TV networks to have writers include anti-drug themes in the shows? Scary stuff, that.
I remember hearing that the biggest cause of the reduction of the use of crack was people seeing all the crack addicts on the street. The problem is, that this is only effective when the problem has gotten out of control. What we need is increased visibility of the druggies we have.
I suggest game shows:
Are you smarter than a crack addict?
One vs. One Hundred Meth heads.
Junkie Jeopardy!
Survivor: Betty Ford Clinic.
One problem is, the shows might not always show what society wants to see.
Brian's like 25, right? Not too young. They were playing the fried egg ad and its variations well into the 90s. The heroin-destroys-the-whole-kitchen sequel was in 1998. You're not that old, Megan.
Njorl - Awsome. I'd download that from uTube.
...and remember kids; Winners don't use drugs, but users don't lose drugs
Does anyone remember the "you're a dope" radio PSA from the late '90s? "French toast!"
These PSAs make me long for the innocence of Hong Kong, where the public service announcements dramatized why, when you wanted to get rid of a used TV set, you shouldn't simply throw it off the balcony of your 30th floor apartment.
This weekend a couple of friends showed me these two Canadian PSAs on domestic violence. They are brutal.
http://www.break.com/index/canadianpsa1.html
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/427694/canada_domestic_violence_psa_2/
My favorite PSA involved the ninja turtles, and a kid yelling at drug dealer, "I'm not a chicken, you're a turkey!"