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  Groups Says It Warned of Drug Ad Problems
Posted by CN Staff on May 15, 2002 at 17:14:43 PT
By Ken Guggenheim, Associated Press Writer  
Source: Associated Press  

justice The group that produces most of the White House's anti-drug ads said Wednesday it warned of problems in the government's $180 million ad campaign back in 2000, but its concerns were not heeded.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America responded to a survey that found no evidence the ad campaign has reduced teen drug use. President Bush's top drug policy adviser, John Walters, has warned the program will end if it is not improved.

Steve Pasierb, the group's executive director, said the ad campaign was working well until two years ago. It bogged down in government bureaucracy, spending on advertising dropped and producers were told to make ads that were too subtle to have an impact.

"It was working. They changed it. It ain't working. Gee, I wonder why," he said.

The group is a nonprofit coalition of media professionals who have donated most of the ads used in the campaign.

In an Oct. 2, 2000, letter to former drug policy director Barry McCaffrey, the group said that while the advertising campaign has slowed preteen marijuana use, "it has been less effective with older teens, either in reducing marijuana use or in driving down use of other dangerous drugs."

It said the campaign was providing too many messages in too short a time to be effective. It also said the office was constantly reducing the portion of its $180 million media budget used to buy air time.

Tom Riley, a spokesman for Walters, said he was not familiar with the letter. Walters took office last December.

Robert Weiner, who was McCaffrey's spokesman, said he had been aware of the group's concerns and believed some had been addressed. He said the problems were not so severe that they would justify ending the ad campaign.

"You get enormous bang for the buck with the media campaign," he said.

Both Weiner and Pasierb said studies have shown that the media campaign was successful in its early years in encouraging teens not to use drugs.

But Riley said the new study, by the private research firm Westat and the University of Pennsylvania, is the most comprehensive ever in examining the ad campaign's overall effectiveness.

Regarding the group's criticisms, Riley said government work will inevitably be more bureaucratic than what advertising people are used to in the private sector. Of the decreased purchase of air time, he said money has been used for other media, such as brochures and the Internet, to convey the anti-drug message.

He also said the office was no longer taking a subtle tone in its anti-drug messages, noting the only media campaign launched by Walters has been a series of ads linking drugs to terrorism.

On the Net:

Office of National Drug Control Policy: http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/

Complete Title: Groups Says It Warned of Drug Ad Problems Two Years Ago

Source: Associated Press
Author: Ken Guggenheim, Associated Press Writer
Published: Wednesday, May 15, 2002
Copyright: 2002 Associated Press

Related Articles & Web Site:

Crossfire Transcripts: Do Drug Ads Work?
http://freedomtoexhale.com/cf.htm

Up in Smoke: Drug Czar Says Anti-Drug Ads Fell
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12853.shtml

Drug Czar Walters' Assertion of Ads' Flop Absurd
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12851.shtml

New Drug Czar Says Ad Campaign has Flopped
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12838.shtml


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Comment #7 posted by FoM on May 16, 2002 at 13:09:57 PT
el_toonces
The ads failed because they aren't honest and children see through them very easily.

The only way drug ads will work is if and only if they teach responsible drug use.

An example:

If a person wants to do a hit of Acid they need to know what not to do. If a person follows the rules of responsible drug use drugs won't control them but they will control the drugs. That way a person will say I can't do any Acid right now because I have important issues to take care of. Isn't that they way it should be?



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Comment #6 posted by el_toonces on May 16, 2002 at 12:59:49 PT:

ONDCP ads and NPR....
Morning Edition did a fairly long piece today in which the government tried to explain why the "terrorism" ads were a flop while the "frying egg" ads were a big "success" (gov't words, not mine). According the rep on the radio, the reason one failed and one succeeded was that different age children need different types of warnings and any warning too specific may actually promote the behavior the government is trying to prevent. Thus, "matching" the ads properly with the age-targeted audiences is critical.

But this government rep did not at all explain how, if at all, the "matching" process was different with these two ads, nor was any rationale offered for why the differing content might result in "drop in marijuana use" (frying egg ad) while the other was "followed by" an actual increase in teen marijuana use, assuming such things can be accurately measured (note: while the word "result" was used for the egg ad, only the words "followed by" were used for the "terror ads").



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Comment #5 posted by dimebag on May 16, 2002 at 07:45:17 PT
Drug Free America, Never was, never will
Wouldn’t a Drug Free America Consist of getting rid of the Demand for all Drugs, not just illegal. Why is it that the War On Drugs is only directed toward Marijuana? Aren’t tobacco and Alcohol Drugs. There is a conspiracy here, and its ugly little head is going to pop up someday and we need to be there to cut it off and put it up for Public Display. How come there are thousands of Beer and Liquor ads that kids see every day but there are no ads that advocate the Benefits of Marijuana. And if people want to say, “we just want it legalized so we don’t have to fear Jail” well, they couldn’t be more right. Who wants to go to jail for harming themselves. This country was founded on good ideas, but now it’s a belief system and to quote the movie “Dogma” its a lot harder to change a belief than an idea. We need better ideas and less beliefs. And if people want beliefs, then so be it, but don’t make those beliefs into Laws that everyone has to follow.

Thank You,

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Comment #4 posted by WolfgangWylde on May 16, 2002 at 04:00:55 PT
Yeah, right...
...the Partnership, they're a regular bastion of honesty, aren't they?

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #3 posted by BGreen on May 16, 2002 at 03:58:56 PT
Leave it to Jack Herer
Check out the story of the PDFAs' lies from the online version of "The Emperor Wears No Clothes."



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Comment #2 posted by BGreen on May 15, 2002 at 22:26:10 PT
I wonder why?
"Tom Riley, a spokesman for Walters, said he was not familiar with the letter."

When you open the envelope, take out the check, and throw away the letter without reading it, you're not likely to remember much of anything.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #1 posted by BGreen on May 15, 2002 at 22:19:52 PT
Remember the "Brainwave" ad?
When the "partnership" released the ad back in the 80's purporting to show the brain waves of a 14-year-old before and after smoking cannabis, it had quite an impact UNTIL it was discovered that the "after" brain waves were actually those of a person in a coma! An ABC news reporter discovered this deception, forcing the "partnership" to stop using the ad.

In 1993 a local advertising paper owned by ABC was still printing that ad. I contacted the editor, and he told me they had a book of anti-drug ads that they used as filler, so they replaced that lie with the "egg in the skillet" lie in future editions.

I guess that's what the "partnership" wants to go back to using. The present lie's just aren't extreme enough.

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