"I'd rather eat a big old bug...than ever take a stupid drug!"

I like this one, it's kind of catchy. However, I have a thing about bugs, especially spiders, so if it ever really came down to it, give me any drug any day of the damn week.

A couple newer ones have caught my eye lately, the ones featuring something as the "anti-drug." Two of these anti drugs are music and dance. Now, I don't know about you, but when I add drugs to music and dance I have a hell of a good time. :) Rave: the anti-drug.

There are two anti-drug PSA's that get my vote...

  • We see a young man running like he's training for the Olympics. The audio is a child's voice saying, "When I grow up I want to be a..." Next, we see the runner being arrested by the police. An announcer's voice states to the effect that when we were small, none of us ever wanted to become an addict.
  • The next one is an amplified spin on the old "This is your brain on drugs" ad. A young woman in a kitchen starts out with the familiar skillet, then proceeds to wreck the room while explaining the devastating effects of heroin on not only the user, but everyone he/she knows.

I agree that the best one is the "This Is Your Brain On Drugs", but only because that's a good description of what huge doses over a short time of dissociative hallucinogenics actually do to you. The promotion of bugs over drugs is just an example of a good jingle - it definitely earwormed me for a few days.

Of course, I question the very existence of these ads. First, there's a certain amount of irony about an anti-drug message coming from the glass nipple, a medium which does far more to promote apathy than a joint or pill. Beyond that, anyone who decided not to use drugs based on a thirty-second TV ad is exactly the one we want using drugs. Even more hopefully, they'll abuse them. Even more hopefully, they'll autodarwinate. Real people make life choices through gathering information and analyizing it, not by being swayed by propaganda.

Alternatively, the stupid jangling jingle could convince me. Secure in my knowledge that drugs, and apparently any and all use of drugs, will hurt, harm, and destroy me mentally, physically, academically, economically and legally, I will never use drugs again. Please check the writeup (when it's noded) - it's a separate issue, so a separate node. Alternatively, node it yourself, writing with the assumption that you've decided to never take another drug - of any kind. And that includes antibiotics. Go ahead - the outline of my writeup is clear, and I'd be interested to see someone else's idea before I prejudge it with mine. Plus I'm tired.

My favorite PSA from the '80s was a warning against perscription drugs. While not exactly Reagan hysterics, it's definetly a classic. It featured three colorful pill puppets singing a song about the dangers of taking random pills.

The song:

     This is serious.
     We could make you delirious.
     You should have a healthy fear of us.
     'Cause too much of us is dangerous.

You may recognize it from a Busta Rhymes song which references the commercial.

This one is from Nancy Reagan's (or was is Babs Bush's?) Just Say No to Drugs campaign:
Scene: Two boys, one significantly larger than the other, are talking in an empty school setting. The Big Boy offers the Little Boy something (I think it was pot-but I forget what exactly) and the Little Boy refuses it.
Big Boy: What are you a Chicken?!
Little Boy: No! But you're a turkey! as he runs away
I know that the reason that I've never offered little boys drugs is because I'm afraid of being called a type of farm fowl...Very successful ad...I'm sure it worked for everyone who saw it...
'Kay, I want all the Canadians here to sing along:

Chorus:
Drugs, drugs, drugs
Which are good? Which are bad?
Drugs, drugs, drugs
Ask your mom or ask your dad!

You can have a little water
Take a doctor's pill
Drugs can make you better
When you're feeling ill

Chorus

There's lots of other drugs
That sure have a flaw
Watch it now man
It's trouble with the law

Chorus

I think there's another verse to it, but I can't remember..
The commercial is basically this song sung by a group of people, mostly kids, with two people to represent 'mom' and 'dad' in the chorus, and a couple of cops. The chorus is sung by everyone, while IIRC the verses are sung by the male cop.

Anyone know the missing verse?
Update 2000/11/12: I just remembered the second verse, and thanks to wh00t for /msging me and helping me get the second last line right, since I couldn't quite remember it.
'The Surfing Monkey' is one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

It involves some stoner ringing up a shopping channel to order a batch of porcelain surfing monkey money boxes. Last time he rang up he ordered about thirty of the things but this time we just hear a load of giggling in the background. Apparently this is an anti weed ad. Trouble is, anyone who's ever smoked weed will skin up as soon as they see this ad.

Please don't forget the 'Winners Don't Do Drugs' logo that used to appear on Sega arcade machines in the 80's. Now that rocked.

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