Montana's Gritty Meth Ads Are Turning Heads (Montana)
Project Financed by Billionaire Aims to Keep Teens From Trying the Drug
By JONANN BRADY
March 30, 2006 — The ads most often seen in Montana these days are graphic and more than a little disturbing.
In one TV spot, you see a close-up of a teenager plucking her eyebrow with tweezers. The camera pans back and you see that she's completely tweezed off the other eyebrow, leaving angry red welts on her face. A voice-over says: "It's amazing what you can accomplish on meth."
Watch "Nightline"next week at 11:30 p.m. ET for its series on methamphetamine in America.
The gritty, hard-hitting ads, created by the Montana Meth Project, all share the same message aimed at teenagers: Don't try meth, not even once. Click here for more on the Montana Meth Project.
Thomas Seibel, a software billionaire who lives part time in Montana, donated $5.6 million to help launch the ad campaign. Since the project kicked off in September, it has become the biggest advertiser in the state, with anti-meth messages popping up on billboards, television, radio and newspapers.
Seibel told "Nightline" that the ads simply reflect the dangers of methamphetamine, the stimulant that has ravaged many communities across the country, especially in the Midwest and West.
"The ads are disturbing. They're gripping. They're attention getting," Seibel said. "This is a disturbing subject … This is difficult to sugarcoat, OK, this is about disease and degradation."
According to the Montana Meth Project, methamphetamine use by young people in Montana is dramatically higher than the national average, and its focus is solely on prevention — to keep teens from even trying the drug.
Seibel and others say the graphic ads are realistic and reach teens in a way that other anti-drug campaigns have not.
"I think they weren't credible, they didn't reach us," Seibel said of the This Is Your Brain on Drugs campaign. "I think those were adults talking to adults, and in the meth project … our message is young people talking to young people."
While the ads have stirred up some controversy, they have also gotten high marks from law enforcement and health officials in the state. And even more important to the project, they do seem to be getting kids' attention.
More to the story at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Health/story?id=1784296&page=1
posted by Kim | 10:00 AM
1 Comments:
I just watched that special on Nightline...wow...I don't know what to say. They certainly made ME want to stay away from meth!! The only problem I see with them is that there are quite a few kids out there using meth who DON'T look as extreme as the kids depicted in the ads. Sad to say, teenagers (who think they're invincible at that age!) will be able to detach themselves, saying, "Well, as long as I don't get to be that bad, I'm fine." But I know that at least one of the ads they depicted addresses that issue, too...
Still - great effort on their part! And I think it's a mistake that the U.S. Government is not getting behind this campaign. Honestly, the only thing that's going to help people already addicted to meth is treatment. The only thing an ad campaign can do is to prevent people from trying it in the first place! And you know what they say about an ounce of prevention...
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