The Healing Place: We give them a reason to work

Campaign for The Healing Place, a nonprofit organization in Raleigh USA. Their mission is to help rehabilitate homeless people with substance abuse issues. While most organizations focus on keeping people off the street, The Healing Place seeks to give people new skills and confidence that they can use to reignite their lives as functioning, and working, members of society.

Broken Teens

New campaign from MADD New Mexico (USA). Studies show that alcohol impacts the brain much more dramatically in teens than it does in adults. That is visualized in this artwork entitled Broken Teens.

Underage drinking is not just a youth problem. It is also very much an adult problem. Adults continue to allow those under the legal drinking age to drink—illegally—by selling alcohol to those under 21, providing or purchasing alcohol, looking the other way when teens openly talk about their drinking exploits, and refusing to hold other adults and youth accountable for breaking the law.

Broken Teens website:

Know The Signs

On October 29th 2009, Heineken officially launched its second global responsible drinking campaign. After the success of last year’s Enjoy Heineken Responsibly campaign, Heineken continues to talk about the signs people start to show when they’ve had one too many. The user is provided with tools through which they can show their friends something about self-awareness on a night out. With the iPhone “Breathalyzer” and the social network application “Tag of Shame” Heineken is enabling a conversation between friends.

The brewery want to prompt greater self-awareness amongst Beer drinkers that sometimes have that one too many, and ruin the night out for themselves and for their friends. They want to send this message by engaging with our audience, not preaching to them.
Their research shows that people do not respond well to being patronized by brands or governments. But they are open to receive a light-hearted responsible drinking message from a brand as well as responding to subtle messages from their friends about their alcohol consumption.

The website is the focus of the Know The Signs campaign (see image above and video below), where you can interact with the message and enjoy learning how to spot the key signs of when someone has had that one too many to drink.
When you enter the website, you see a large TV screen showing CCTV images of a bar. You’ll need to watch the footage and try and spot the ‘signs’ – those little clues that tell you it’s all about to go wrong.

This is a clickable video, you can interact:

Comparative Cartography Assists War on Drugs & Crime

Pentagram partner Harry Pearce recently devised a project for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) which provided graphic training tools for the Russian police. Employing national abbreviations (GB, US, RU, etc) the folding posters presented comparative data surrounding drug abuse, intervention, therapy and health related consequences as a way of clarifying various aspects of drug policy during training sessions. (English versions shown here, with Russian versions being used on the ground. More posters can be viewed via Pentagram)

Would you give minors alcohol?

New campaign from the Wyoming Department of Health (USA) to deter underage drinking in Wyoming. All these pieces were installed in hundreds of liquor stores throughout the state to remind the buyers, the adults, not to buy alcohol for minors.
Buying alcohol for minors is against the law and more important it can serious consequences for those you buy for.

The campaign is part of Where do you draw the line.
“If you knew what was going to happen, would you still give minors alcohol?”

Alcohol is stronger than you think

Three ads from Associação Salvador, a non-profit organisation from Portugal with a vocation towards the protection and concern for the physically disabled.
In this campaign it is about road safety:
“O álcool é mais forte do que pensas.”
“Alcohol is stronger than you think.”

Gambling, it’s just as addictive

I thought most people know the addictive dangers of gambling. Seeing these ads from Bellwood Health Services I’m wrong I guess.

“Gambling. It’s just as addictive.
If you’re concerned with your own or someone else’s gambling, visit www.bellwood.ca or call 1-800-387-6198.”

Changes in perception

“Hard drugs give you hard lessons.”
Three print ads from the Romanian Agenţia Naţională Antidrog (National Anti-drug Agency) showing the way how drugs changes our perception.

The National Anti-Drug Agency is a specialized body with juridical personality subordinated to the Ministry of Administration and Interior.
The Agency is coordinated by a secretary of state from the Ministry of Administration and Interior, appointed by the decision of the prime-minister to fulfil the position of President.
As part of his responsibilities, the president issues decisions which are compulsory for all the state institutions involved in the fight against drugs.

It’s hard to tell when fun becomes disease

Nagle zrobiło się strasznie? / Suddenly it got scary?
It’s hard to tell when fun becomes disease. Don’t try to check it yourself.

Two print ads from the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita in order to support the Alcoholics Anonymous helpline. 

INPUD: The war on drugs destroys lives

Campaign made by Better World Advertising for INPUD, the International Network of People who Use Drugs.
INPUD staged an action at the High-Level Meeting of the fifty-second session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna on March 11th and 12th. They all dressed in white, carried the banners as shown in this post and picket signs, passed out stickers and information pamphlets to the delegates and guests entering the United Nations building. There is a microsite to the campaign which invites people to join their movement towards peace to end the drug war.

Talk to Frank: Paranoia, panic attacks and memory loss

Yesterday a new part of the ongoing campaign from the UK drug information service FRANK was launched. Following on from last month’s cannabis reclassification, the campaign focuses on the mental health harms associated with the drug.

The £2.2m TV, radio and online advertising campaign is part of an ongoing awareness programme targeting 11-18 year olds about the harms caused by the drug.  The TV ad features a teenager called Simon who is smoking cannabis and the audience is taken inside his head.  At first we see him experiencing the perceived positive effects of cannabis, such as feeling giggly, talkative, and getting the munchies.  We then see him experience the negative side effects associated with the drug - paranoia, panic attacks and memory loss.

Most important part of the campaign is the micro site talktofrank.com/cannabis with the campaign material and information about cannabis.

Cocaine Basement

There’s a darker side to cocaine, that we are not aware of. FRANK, the UK Government drugs and alcohol helpline, can tell you all about it.

A new interactive digital experience, portraying the psychological damage caused by cocaine abuse, invites users to the basement, where lesser known facts are shared as a useful resource to support families on their drug awareness search.

A special attention to Frank TV, where Pablo “The mule dog” does a special broadcast on the darker side of coke.

Every kid on the street has a story

Three ads from Directions Youth Services Centre, the Youth centre for Vancouver’s homeless youth and youth at-risk.
“Many of the homeless youth on our streets have escaped from homes filled with abuse and violence. Directions is a 24 hour resource centre where they can find the support and tools they need to get off the streets for good.”

Try drugs

Go ahead, try it.

What You Won’t See In the United States

This sample public service announcement by documentary filmmaker Gina Levy would never run in the United States.  Four-letter words aside, the use of actual drug addicts rather than actors is generally taboo in U.S. broadcast markets.  What explains this prohibition?

The other interesting thing about this clip is how this selection of footage is edited to send a very different message from Levy’s full-length documentary about this mother and son pair of addicts, “Foo Foo Dust”, which emphasizes their humanity as well as their abjection.

No woman wants to look like a man

This new campaign from Drug and Alcohol Service for London (DASL), the leading substance misuse charity in London, targets female drinkers. For women alcohol addiction is accompanied by hair loss, wrinkles and obesity, plus the other problems like breast cancer, early menopause and memory loss.
The ad is spotted at several outdoor advertising sites in the London Underground.  It will also appear in Marie Claire’s July issue.

The campaign is also guided by a digital application that demonstrates the physical effects of drinking too much at the social network bebo. Visitors can submit their own photo and enter their weekly intake of alcohol. Their face is then altered and the result is a shocking insight into what they could look like in years to come. 

Thanks for sending Alef.

This isn’t normal, but on Meth it is

This is phase 4 of the well known Meth Project campaigns. In this phase the key message is that living on Meth is another reality then ‘normal’ life.
It also shows the devastating consequences Meth has on the friends and family of Meth users.

The Meth Project is a large-scale prevention program aimed at reducing first-time meth use through public service messaging, public policy, and community outreach. Recent survey data (Pdf) in Montana, where the Meth Project first initiated its prevention campaign in 2005, demonstrates attitudes and behaviors toward Meth have changed since the campaign launched.

See more of this campaign and previous phases here.

Campanha antidrogas: the end of the line

Various campaign items in a surprising outdoor campaign from the Instituto Prebisteriano Mackenzie (Mackenzie Presbiterian Institute) in Brazil. 
Above a optical illusion made with floor adhesive tape in several Mackenzie campus lobbies and a sign saying:
“Drogas Sao assim: o fim da linha”
“Drugs are just like this: the end of the line”

Thanks Armando for translating

Alcohólicos Anónimos

This campaign from the Argentinian Alcohólicos Anónimos is running now. The four videos shows typical behaviour of alcohol addicts.
Tagline: “If you are worried about your way of drinking, call us. We have been there. Alcohólicos Anónimos”
Video above is called ‘Resaca’ which means ‘hangover’.

Drugs: any country could be your prison

9 ads from Ramón Rubial - Fundación Españoles en el Mundo, the Foundation for Spanish people all over the world. Third serie on Osocio which warns travellers to be careful with drugs.
Copy: “Get into drugs abroad and any country could be your prison”.
Above the version about El Salvador.

Related posts:
- Your trip could be for life
- A life inside

Me Not Meth

This new campaign made by GMMB, Better World Advertising and Anita Santiago Advertising is called “Me Not Meth”. It is a project of the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs seeking to prevent crystal methamphetamine use across the state of California USA.
The current stage of the campaign is aimed at gay and bisexual men, and other men who have sex with men (MSM).
The campaign will officially launch next monday.

Don’t Shoot Me Santa

“Don’t Shoot Me Santa” is a song by Las Vegas-based rock band The Killers. The song was released November 27, 2007, with 100% of the proceeds to benefit the Global Fund, for investment in African AIDS programs.

Drugs are and remain drugs

When you’re exposed to something on a regular basis, it becomes acceptable. The FAD (Fundacion de Ayuda a la Drogadicción - Foundation Against Drug Addiction, Spain) points out this potential danger by depicting drugs as mainstream products.



“The biggest danger is forgetting what they really are”

I’m fine to drive

These confrontating adhesives where placed on walls and floors in public bathrooms at local bars. The South African road safety organisation Arrive Alive visualize people’s behaviour after drinking too much.

There’s no such thing as an old junkie

Folow-up of the great video from Focus 12, the rehabilation centre for all kind of addicts, based in Suffolk UK.