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”

Clean product photography and the barcode amplify the idea that you’re looking at an ad for a regular product. That same barcode also serves as a great way to camouflage the headline - a bit, adding to the element of surprise.

More than just a nice touch is the fact that they’re using the drugs’ characteristics. Like perfume you ‘enjoy’ cocaine through the nose, ecstasy actually looks like candy and hash is commonly referred to as chocolate. The print on the packaging itself is slightly smile provoking at times. This little fun part doesn’t hurt the message. It will probably only make it more of a conversation piece amongst users. 

They could do with a new logo though.

UPDATE

Jeff Trexler pointed me to the fact they used the packaging of existing products like Altoids and Lindt. For me these prints work well without the reference to real brands, I didn’t even know they referenced real brands. By doing this they added nothing to the idea, except of course if part of the idea was to get the ads banned.


Thanks again Jeff, for pointing this out

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Comments

As a rule, this isn’t a campaign that other charities should imitate.  The reason:  trademark law. 

What the Fundacion did is not parody or criticism, but dilution of protected marks.  (If the trade dress seems unfamiliar, do an image search for, say, “Altoids” or “Lindt”.) The easy slam-dunk argument would be that by stealing their dress and associating it with drugs, the Fundacion tarnished their reputation. 

In the U.S. at least, it would be a magnet for a cease-and-desist letter.

We don’t have Altoids or Lindt here in .be, so I had no idea. You’re sure right, they’ve almost copied the real packaging to the letter.
Creating an original packaging would have been a better idea indeed. Blatantly copying existing packaging doesn’t add any value to the message.

Thank you for pointing this out Jeff!