The anti-drug ads from PETA

It’s a historic day. The day that PETA came with ads without nudity.
It’s about horses. And drugs. In the year in which we are ashamed about Lance Armstrong. And there is more which we should be ashamed: horse racing.

These new ads are made for PETA’s mobile billboard and will be displayed to visitors of the 2013 Kentucky Derby.
The billboard draws attention to the misuse of both “therapeutic” and illegal drugs that the racing industry uses to keep injured and tired horses running, leading to the deadly breakdown of more than three horses every day on U.S. racetracks.

PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo: “The biggest tradition in thoroughbred racing isn’t fancy hats or cocktails—it’s illegal drugs that cause countless tragic breakdowns and the deaths of dozens of horses on racetracks every week. PETA’s message to people who care about animals is that when it comes to horse races, don’t attend ‘em, don’t watch ‘em, and don’t bet on ‘em.”

Horses who survive being pumped full of performance-enhancing drugs and being forced to run at breakneck speed face another threat: When thoroughbreds can no longer run, they are often sold at auction, packed onto crowded trucks, and shipped to slaughterhouses, where they are shot in the head, are hoisted into the air by one leg, and have their throats slit so that their flesh can be sold for human consumption.

Are these anti-smoking ads too silly to work?

What can be said in an anti-smoking ad that hasn’t been said before? Although I’ve seen a few great new ideas lately, I’m not sure this campaign is one of them.

Created by Sukle Advertising & Design for the Wyoming Department of Health, these three PSAs use the absurdist style familiar to fans of Skittles or Orangina. In this case, however, the product is free pharmaceutical and personal help to quit smoking. I can see why the agency wanted to push the boundaries, because the message is a little dull. But do you think the weirdness could get in the way of clear recall?

Somebody had fun making them, anyway.

See the other two below:

Does Farting Socially Make it Okay?

Tom wrote 2 years ago: Fart jokes are the oldest form of humour known to man.
And it is used in social advertising a couple of times.

Like in this new ad from the Canada’s Ministry of Health: Quit The Denial.

It’s about social smoking. Those two words are often used as an excuse to smoke, to be justified. Social smoking is smoking. Doing it social is worse because of the secondhand smoke. Just like social farting.

“Social smoking is as ridiculous as social farting.”

Related fart posts:
- Don’t Pass Gas (American anti-smoking campaign from 2007)
- Anti-smoking ads speak to youth in their language
- Fart fart (Fart fart, and the greenhouse effect goes up the chart)

Hat tip to Jean Julien.

You hate the mirror after ten years of drinking

This new campaign in the form of an app should be a success. Because at this time the most important thing is beauty. Everyone wants to hold the age of 20. Drinking too much alcohol on a long term is an attack on staying pretty.
That’s the idea behind this new campaign from Drink Smarter, an initiative from Healthier Scotland.

“Is alcohol ageing you? Deeper wrinkles, red cheeks and weight gain… some of the visible effects of regularly drinking too much are not a pretty sight.”

Judging by the many reports in the media this app will be a hit. I hope that is the case in bars and other places where alcohol is consumed.
I’m 100% alcohol free myself and now I know why. I just tried the app myself and the result is absolute horror. I dare not to publish the photo.

And of course an Scottish newspaper tried some celeb pictures. Because there is web version of the app also.

The smartphone app is available for iPhone/iPad and Android.

If you could see the damage, you’d stop

From the UK Department of Health comes the year’s first shock campaign. In it, a man sucks on his smoke as a cancerous tumour grows on it.

You can hide your packs but you can’t hide from the effects of smoking

Since the beginning of this month, all packs of cigarettes in Australia are decorated with smoking warnings and diseased body parts. Regardless of the brand. Australia is the first country in the world where tobacco brands are forced to sell their products like this. The only difference between the packs are the brand names, and these are all printed in an identical small font.
Plain packaging of cigarettes is a topical discussion around the globe right now and Australia is the first country to introduce the legislation.

Of course there are many ways to hide the horrific images on the packaging cover.
That is the idea behind the new campaign of Quit Victoria, the regional Australian anti-smoking organisation.
The tagline says it all:
“You can hide your packs but you can’t hide from the effects of smoking.”

Live Through This - a story of addiction and hope

When he was shooting portraits of the drug-addicted street community in Ottawa’s ByWard Market in 2010,  photographer Tony Fouhse met someone who would change his life. For the next year, Tony brought Stephanie MacDonald into his world — and she brought him into hers. It was a friendship and journey that Tony documented through photographs and Stephanie wrote about on slips of paper. Their story forms the basis of Live Through This, a self-published testament to human relationships, weaknesses and dreams.

“The first time I met you was the picture in the bikini top/shorts,” Stephanie writes. “I walked up and asked you what was up? what are you doing? you said that you were taking pictures of the crack addicted and Heroine addicts and you asked to take my picture and I said yes.”

“A couple of weeks went by and you came back and we got talking again. and that’s when you said “is there anything i can do to help you”? and i said i wanted to get into rehab. you told me you would help and of course i thought you were talking the talk but not ganna walk the walk.”

Tony did walk the walk. He did everything he could for Stephanie, at one point inviting her to stay in his home with himself and his wife. Stephanie went through ups and downs, health and personal crises. And Tony gave a play-by-play of his own journey on his blog, Drool. Eventually, they made progress.

Breaking The Taboo: Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll

Ok, to be clear the campaign is only about drugs. However nothing smells of success more than a campaign promoting the war against the war on drugs.  The campaign also has the rock and roll part featuring famous celebrities such as rapper Dizzy Rascal and eye candy, like Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal.

“Breaking the Taboo” campaign is anchored by soon to be released documentary also called “Breaking the Taboo” and will be released on youtube and the Breaking the Taboo website December 7th 2012. Trying a new distribution model, the documentary film makers, Sundog Pictures are trying to reach the widest audience by skipping the cinema and going straight to where the people are: Youtube.
The documentary is narrated by Oscar winning actor Morgan Freeman, “Breaking the Taboo,” takes a critical look at how after 50 years of prohibition, illicit drugs are now the third most valuable industry in the world after food and oil. Speaking during the documentary former US President Bill Clinton admits, “Obviously if the expected results were that we would eliminate serious drug use in America and eliminate the narco-trafficking networks, it hasn’t worked.”  The documentary was filmed in 8 countries, where over 176 people were interviewed, including former US Presidents and prominent think tanks. The documentary feature also follows The Global Commission on Drug Policy on a mission to break the political taboo over the United States led War on Drugs and expose what it calls the biggest failure of global policy in the last 40 years.

Besides a promising documentary, I like that rather than bombarding viewers with only the problems, “Breaking the Taboo” campaign offers clear solutions.  I like that it is supported by many dignitaries, politicians and non-government organizations such as the Global Commission on Drug Policy many of whom are thought leaders on the subject. I also like the strong call to action which covers various sectors affected by the war on drugs.

After the break watch some featured videos from the Youtube campaign.

Just because I like these alcohol abuse ads doesn’t mean they will work

They’re funny, they’re factual, and they’re well-executed. But will they make a difference?

This series of ads by Australia’s Cringe the Binge (an outreach of Byron Youth Service) wants young Australians to just drink a little less to stay healthy and safe. It’s also supported by the National Alliance for Action on Alcohol, a lobby group pushing for more regulation of Australia’s drinking problems.

I’m just not sure that making light of the consequences is really such a great idea. After all, the whole problem with the younger audience is that random sexual encounters, fights and dumb behaviour are often seen as part of the alcohol-soaked coming of age ritual. These posters are trying so hard to be cool, I’d worry that they’d become dorm room favourites just for the irony.

I’ll bet they were fun to create, though.

See the rest of the campaign after the break.

Alkohol? Kenn Dein Limit. - Alcohol? Know your Limit.

So Guys, here is some good news from Germany:

The Health Minister Daniel Bahr (FDP) and the Federal Centre for Health Education (BzgA) proudly announced on Monday that teenagers in Germany drink less than before. The declining numbers were also attributed to success of currentprevention campaign, “Alcohol? Know your limit”, which has been running for three years. (more after the break)

The new campaign motifs: