Survey says anti-meth ads hitting home (Montana)

By MICHAEL MOORE of the Missoulian

With a new string of gripping advertisements about to debut Thursday, one way to gauge the early success of the Montana Meth Project is by listening to children and their parents.

Children, a just-released survey by the privately funded project finds, have noted a dramatic increase in their parents talking about the drug with them since the ad campaign began late last year. And about half the parents in the survey said they talked with their children as a direct result of the ads, which have aired on TV and radio, and appeared in newspapers and on billboards and the Internet.

“We are starting to move the meter on meth,” said Tom Siebel, the software billionaire who has thus far financed the meth project.

Siebel, founder of the company Siebel Systems, offered an update on the project in a Helena presentation that was broadcast around the state Wednesday morning. The project has just completed a survey assessing the efficacy of the ad campaign, as its new campaign begins.

Kids, Siebel said, are getting the message. The meth project commissioned a survey before it began its first campaign last September; the most recent survey, conducted in March, found children much more likely to understand the negative consequences of meth use. Teens are also more likely now to reject the idea that meth offers benefits - that they would be more attractive, more popular and happier.

“This is the wrong stuff to experiment with,” said Siebel, who owns several ranches in Montana and has been the guiding force behind the meth project.

Teens seem to agree. About 82 percent of those surveyed said their friends would criticize them if they used the drug, and 73 percent said they were willing to tell their friends not to use meth.

See the rest of the update at: http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2006/04/20/news/mtregional/news05.txt