Pubdate: Fri, 17 May 2002
Source: Huntsville Times (AL)
Copyright: 2002 The Huntsville Times
Contact:  http://www.htimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/730
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/campaign.htm (ONDCP Media Campaign)

A BETTER MESSAGE

To find the best way to discourage teen drug use, we need to listen 
to them Three years ago, a 17-year-old young woman told CNN what a 
government-funded survey now trumpets: Teens aren't influenced by 
anti-drug commercials.

''Seeing a commercial is not going to change your mind that much,'' she said.

The survey backs her up. None of the young people who participated in 
the two-year study said that it caused them to decrease their use of 
drugs at all. In fact, there may even be some evidence that drug use 
among some of them actually increased.

What does this mean?

One, it means that the commercials aren't speaking their language. 
Yet parents who were surveyed responded well to the ads. In fact, the 
ads moved about 80 percent of them to begin getting more involved in 
the lives of their children.

While this is certainly good news, the truth is that parents and 
their children often make different cultural connections. They enjoy 
different music and television shows. They don't read the same books 
and magazines. They talk and dress differently.

Two, it means that the White House needs to go back to the drawing 
board. This anti-drug ad campaign was launched in 1998. By the time 
it ends, nearly $1 billion will have been spent to discourage teens 
from using drugs. The shame will be that all this money was wasted.

Congress has to decide whether to reauthorize it. But before doing 
so, Congress should ensure that the White House is doing more than 
farming out the creative responsibility for the ads to public 
relations guys in three-piece suits. It also needs to know that the 
bureaucrats aren't crafting them either.

Some real, outside-of-the-Beltway teens need to be at the drawing board.

Still, listening may be the most effective anti-drug of all. We might 
be able to convince more teens not to use drugs if we adults listen 
to and value their ideas, fears, likes and dislikes. Then, not only 
will the next batch of commercials be more effective, we might find 
that the commercials aren't needed as much.
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