Teens Reject White House Anti-Drug Ads
 

NORML Demands CBS Pull Forthcoming Anti-Pot Ads From Super Bowl Broadcast

Washington, DC: White House sponsored anti-drug ads targeting marijuana and alleging that recreational drug use funds terrorism fail to alter teens' perceptions of pot or reduce its use among young people, according to a four-year evaluation performed by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and commissioned by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

"There is little evidence of direct favorable Campaign effects on youth, either for the Marijuana Initiative period or for the Campaign as a whole," the evaluation concluded. "Youth who were more exposed to Campaign messages are no more likely to hold favorable beliefs or intentions about marijuana than are youth less exposed to those messages, both during the Marijuana Initiative period and over the entire course of the Campaign."

Since 1997, Congress has spent more than $1.2 billion in taxpayer dollars and matching funds on a federal media campaign, titled "The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign," which produces and buys air time for public service announcements condemning drug use, particularly marijuana. Despite the campaign's consistently poor performance, lawmakers last fall voted to continue funding the program at a cost of approximately $150 million per year.

As in previous years, some of that funding will pay to air public service announcements produced by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) during the Super Bowl broadcast - a decision that NORML Foundation Executive Director Allen St. Pierre says violates CBS Network policy.
"CBS has a stated policy of not running ads on 'controversial issues of public importance,'" St. Pierre said. "If CBS is to be consistent, then they must also adhere to this policy when it comes to the ONDCP's ads. Marijuana decriminalization currently enjoys 72% support among the American public, according to the latest CNN/Time polling data. Clearly this is a 'controversial issue of public importance' that divides American public opinion, and any public service announcement on the subject that promotes only one side of this issue must be considered an issue ad."

To date, more than 3,500 e-mails have been sent to CBS through NORML's website urging the network to drop the federal anti-drug ads. "These ads are nothing more than government propaganda," St. Pierre said. "And it's propaganda that the federal government's own reviews admit is a miserable failure."

This latest evaluation by the Annenberg Public Policy Center is the sixth major review performed by the university think-tank, which has consistently found the federal ad campaign to be ineffective. According to a January 2003 report, adolescents who most often viewed the White House anti-drug ads demonstrated "no statistically significant ... improvements in beliefs and attitudes," and tended to "move more markedly in a 'pro-drug' direction as they aged than those who were exposed" to fewer advertisements. Following the release of that report, the White House announced that they would no longer fund the Center to perform bi-annual evaluations.

Future reviews of the White House's Media Campaign will likely be conducted by the Partnership for a Drug Free America, a federally funded communications organization that co-produces many of the Campaign's anti-drug ads.

For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of the NORML Foundation at (202) 483-5500. Text of the study, entitled "Evaluation of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign: 2003 Report of Findings," is available online at: http://www.nida.nih.gov/despr/westat/

Information on NORML's e-mail campaign to CBS is available online at: http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/aler...749626&type=ML

Cool :glugglug

If anything funds terrorism its the oil that Bush and his cronies are so closely tied to.

They should get those anti-tobacco groups like truth.org on that project. They have had a HUGE impact on teen smoking.

Waste of my tax money.

those truth commercials are retarded. It is especially stupid because they run them a million times a day on MTV and on all of mtvs shows they promote smoking.

Truth.org is mostly funded by the tobacco companies, not the government.

I have written to CBS and expressed my concerns about their double standards...

Censorship IS alive and well.... if that bothers you as it does me... please take the time and use the link to write to CBS and let them know it bothers you. Thanks :winkwink:

I'm going to do the same. They say they don't want to make the super bowl political so they won't let Bono perform at halftime with a song and presentation about AIDS and they won't run the anti-bush commercial but they will run this. . . pisses me off.

:thumbsup Thanks

So does this mean that today?s youth are more cynical and intelligent or just bloody idiots? That's the study I'm interested in.

Hmm, are you sure that's not about last year's Super Bowl? That's when they played those crazy pot funds terrorism ads, I don't think they play them anymore. I could be wrong, probably am actually, but that's what I thought. Now they're on to the kill a kid in a drive threw, let your brother drown type of bullshit.

I think it's the former. Today's kids are under seige from ad companies and have so many outlets: 150 channels of TV, Internet, Cell Phones, Pagers, ect that it takes more to get their attention. This is also partly the fault of the parents. These days high school kids pretty much do as they wish in school. I was in my old high school about a year ago and saw this girl tell a teacher to kiss her ass in the hall. the teacher did nothing and explained it was too much trouble to do anything. The schools are hanging on by shoestring budgets and can't afford a lawsuit and often the parents of students that are disciplened sue.

but part of it too is adults being out of touch with kids. When I was in high school in the late 80's we had a horrible assembly about saying no to drugs. It was stupid as hell and then they handed out a pamphlet about drugs. In it were a few ways to say no to drugs. On the list were the norms like No, No thanks, I don't want them and stuff and at the bottom of the list was " take off hoser." nobody says that but the teachers were trying to be cool. "take off hoser " because my high schools new motto with the kids and the pamphlet, the assembly and the teachers because a laughing stalk because of it.

i don't care who funds them, statistically they have been successful. (i think)

It was last year they ran quite a few... this year they will be again. Unless we can stop them.

Hey, if you want to spread the word about drugs... don't fucking lie, include alcohol, don't just target pot.

One commercial I heard stated that "every driver in an accident tested for drugs had marijuana in them"... ok, that is like saying, every drunk driver that was tested in an accident had alcohol in them.

Most people do not pick up on this shit.

Personally, I have NEVER had an accident while under the influence of pot.... however I have totaled my car on alcohol. But that is me... everyone reacts different to different substances. All I can express is my experiences... been a pot smoker since 14... 39 now, still alive, still healthy and making a living.

So fuck these propaganda commercials... There are some of us who know better.

Instead of trying to babysit us, the governments should stick to doing there jobs.

how many anti-pot commericals you think will run tomorrow during the super bowl?
they are all fucking bullshit, why do they attack marijuana?
There are many more harder and deadlier drugs out there to keep kids off of.

no matter what, one day, the kids will grow up, generations of them, and it will become legal.

no matter what, and no matter how christian you are.

the freak show has yet to come.

like zombies eating dust in mexico.

:glugglug

looking for a good horror?

check Lucio Fulci's Zombie

http://www.horror-wood.com/ZOMBIE.jpg

cheers.

:glugglug

My anti-favourite anti-drug ad is the Whacko ads, which freely they admit are sponsored by Phillip Morris Tobacco industries. "Tobacco is Whacko (if you're a teen)." Of course implying that adults who smoke are cool, which makes teens want to do it even more! I can't believe that one passed the laugh test!

i love watching anti-pot ads while im baked.

i guess there good for laughs.