Pub] Date: Tue, July 15, 1997 Source: The Herald, Everett, Washington State, USA Page 1D Contact: www.heraldnet.com (Photo of Ammy Schooley in an antidrug commercial) Making drugs UNCOOL By Andrew Wineke, Herald Writer (photo of the ad's conclusion, "4 out of 5 teens don't smoke pot") Ammy Schooley is an average kid. At least, she plays one on TV. The 16yearold Cascade High School juniortobe is among a group of Washington teens featured in a new nationwide antimarijuana commercial. The TV spot, produced by Seattle ad firm Herring/Newman for the Partnership for a DrugFree America, is a departure from the old message: "This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?" Instead, the new commercials feature local teens talking about what the "average kid" does and doesn't do. The spots end with the tagline "4 out of 5 teens don't smoke pot." "If you think everyone else is getting high, you're going to want to get high," says Sally Marshall, the deputy director for creative development for the Partnership for a DrugFree America. Research by her group shows that most teens overstate how many of their peers are smoking marijuana. While researching the commercial in Puget Soundarea schools, Herring/Newman found the same impression among local teens. "The big thing that came out of that was that the kids that didn't smoke kind of felt uncool about it and felt a little bit shy about standing up and saying, 'I don't do that,'" says Cameron Wicker, a spokeswoman for Herring/Newman. The commercials try to skewer that misconception. "If you get high, you're in the minority, not the majority," Marshall says. Cascade's Ammy Schooley thinks the message gets across. "I like it because it doesn't say 'Don't do drugs.' It just tells the facts," she says. The Partnership for a DrugFree America began targeting marijuana three years ago, Marshall says. In 1992, marijuana use first began to climb among eighthgraders and it continues to climb among teens. The old way to turn kids off of drugs, by showing their damaging effects doesn't work well with marijuana, Marshall says. By focusing the ads instead on peer pressure and behavior, the group hopes to change the trend. "They really do have this feeling that the sky is going to fall down if they don't try," Marshall says, "With marijuana it's very difficult to show kids effects that are credible. Once you change their attitudes, you change their behavior. The Herring/Newman commercial is one of a series featuring the antipot message. the Washington state chapter of Partnership for a DrugFree America hopes to release the new commercials locally in August. Television stations run the commercials whenever they have time available for public service announcements. Ammy, who studies acting at the Young Performers Studio in Seattle, did her part in just one day last July. The director had each of the teens read through the whole commercial several times and then picked out which teen would appear saying each line in the finished ad. "They took us and had us sit down and had us move and sit down and move and sit down and move and sit down again, and they gave us burgers and soggy french fries and then had us read our lines," Ammy says. "they had me say every line at least four times." Ammy, who sports blue lipstick and dark brown hair in the commercial, says the opening line: "The average kid doesn't get straight A's." She didn't get paid for the commercial, aside from the burger and fries, but says she enjoyed the chance to get on camera and tell other teens the truth about marijuana use. "I'm hoping it will make a difference."