420

The federal government's new anti-marijuana ad, "Pete's Couch", is out; and it's different from the rest. It doesn't suggest that smoking marijuana will make you rape your sister's friend and shoot your neighbor in the head. Instead it suggests that you'll end up sitting on a couch all day smoking pot and never go ice skating or to the movies (you know, because there's no one out there getting high and going to see Jack Ass 2). Slate's Seth Stevenson gives the ad a B+.

This new spot, titled "Pete's Couch," doesn't offend me. It acknowledges that smoking weed on your buddy's sofa is the "safest thing in the world." (Which is true. I actually had a friend named Pete in high school, and we did get high on his couch. No turmoil ensued.) The ad's main contention is that it's important to get off that couch and out into the world, where you can do things like ice skate with other teens. (Also true. It is indeed good to engage with the outside world, instead of just sitting in your rec room. Though I'd note that it's possible to smoke pot in your rec room one day and then go ice skating the next. Or even just smoke pot and immediately go ice skating‚--which, come to think of it, sounds like a blast. Who's in?)

Whatever you may think of its arguments, this spot is quite a departure for the ONDCP. Finally, an admission that using pot isn't necessarily calamitous. It's possible we're seeing this about-face only because previous scare-tactic ads were recently proved to increase drug use. But either way, I applaud the new, more truthful strategy. Lying is never what you want from your government (even if you've grown accustomed to it).

I basically agree. This ad is a step in the right direction. Decades of research has consistently determined what kind of prevention messages back-fire and do more harm than good: "scare-based" tactics, over-use of authority figures, talking down to people, and conveying messages or ideas that are over-the-top or do not conform with people's perceptions and experiences. This ad at least tries to avoid all this; and it's clever. But it sets up a false choice between smoking marijuana and going out that teens will most likely see through (substitute watching TV for smoking marijuana and you might have an effective ad campaign). A better ad would depict a stoned boy trying to pick-up a hot girl, but being unable to because he's too stoned. She could even laugh at him. Yeah, people get high and pick up chicks all the time; but such an ad would at least tap into teenage angst (just like anti-tobacco ads depicting smokers with bad breath do).

Via Reason's Tim Cavanaugh who suggests - with tongue-in-cheek - that DPA made the ad.http://www.nooked.com/news/itemtrack...0deff80e3a2466

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