Pubdate: Wed, 27 Feb 2002
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2002 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Steve Maxey
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?203 (Terrorism)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/campaign.htm (ONDCP Media Campaign)

Voice Of The People (Letter)

ADS' FLAW

OAK PARK -- In her column on the new anti-drug ads linking the war on drugs 
to the war on terrorism, Dawn Turner Trice either missed or chose to ignore 
an obvious flaw in this campaign that is likely to make it backfire with 
the audience it is trying to reach.

It won't take long for the media-savvy teens to figure out that drug money 
supports terror not because drugs are mind-altering chemicals but because 
they're illegal.

Viewers who don't figure this out the instant they see one of the ads will 
get it as soon as they recall the violence surrounding alcohol during 
Prohibition or see it in a movie or old series on cable TV.

These ads are bad for reducing drug usage. And sooner or later they will 
undercut people's faith both in U.S. drug policy and in the war on terrorism.

That just leaves one question:

Why didn't Trice mention this obvious flaw?

Is she naive?

Is she gullible?

Or is she an apologist for the White House Office of National Drug Control 
Policy?
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MAP posted-by: Jackl