Ummm...whut?

[liz_marcs]

After spending a productive evening working on incorporating beta notes into The Last Tin Solider, I was getting lunch ready for the next day and grooving along to the radio.

Then, along comes this PSA (public service announcement for those outside of the U.S. broadcasting biz) during the commercial break. It's the third time I've heard this particular PSA over the past six months. It's also the third radio station I've heard it on, too.

I have to be honest here. I'm not actually sure what the PSA is for.

Tell me what you think:

It starts with some kind of free-form music, like the kind you'd hear at a Phish or a Medeski, Martin & Wood concert (not normally my bag, but I can groove along if I'm in the mood).

A young-ish woman's voice cuts in and says that she so desperately wanted to be "cool" that she'd go to concerts with her friends, even though she wasn't crazy about the music. All of her friends also happened to smoke pot, so they'd light up before the concert so they could chill to the groove while feeling at peace with the universe (or something like that) while the bands would work their bad, bad magic.

Eventually, she realized that she wasn't having fun. So she stopped smoking the evil weed, and she finally got the strength to tell her friends that she didn't like their music. She goes on to say that she's relieved that she can "be herself" and not have to pretend to like music that she really doesn't like any more.

Bwahuh?

Near as I can tell, the PSA seems to be saying that smoking pot makes you want to hear bands that you wouldn't want to hear if you were sober. Or is that smoking pot with your friends makes you go to concerts and listen to free-form improv music. Or maybe that toking with your buddies makes you feel obligated to listen to their crappy music.

Seriously?

With all the scare-tactics around pot going back to at least the 1930s, the best PSA the Partnership for a Drug-Free America come up with is that pot makes you want to listen to crappy music?

Are you kidding me?

Someone needs to seriously sit down and watch Reefer Madness (or at least listen to the off-Broadway soundtrack) so they can pick up tips on how to conduct a proper scare-mongering PSA.

Amateurs.

Either that, or it's a really, really clever effort at sabotage.

I'm kind of hoping for sabotage, because if they're serious then I've got nothin'.

X-posted to IJ and GJ

Comments

[nwhepcat.livejournal.com]

I'd almost suspect it's Baptists, saying how crappy music leads to drug use. Or drug use leads to crappy music. (Q: Why don't Baptists have sex standing up? A: Because it leads to dancing.)

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Bwahahahahahahahaha!

*ahem*

Very, very true. At least according to my late aunt who was a Baptist.

[blade-girl.livejournal.com]

My fave is the family dog telling the teenager, "Lindsay? I wish you didn't smoke weed. You're not the same when you smoke. I miss my friend."

Because if the family dog started talking to you, wouldn't you just dismiss it as a drug-induced hallucination anyway?

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. God.

I actually burst out laughing when I read that.

Talking dogs is a sure sign that you need to hit the fridge and then go to bed and sleep it off.

[blade-girl.livejournal.com]

No kidding. But she doesn't. He says, "I'll be outside," leaves the room, and she stands there in silence, looking guilty and ashamed.

Although she must be doing a little too much weed, because she never once grabs the video camera and yells, "Hang on, pooch! Just wait till I get a tape in! This is gonna be worth

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No kidding. But she doesn't. He says, "I'll be outside," leaves the room, and she stands there in silence, looking guilty and ashamed.

Although she must be doing a little too much weed, because she never once grabs the video camera and yells, "Hang on, pooch! Just wait till I get a tape in! This is gonna be worth <i><millions.</i>"

[blade-girl.livejournal.com]

Screw getting the html right. I need sleep!

[jakeexperience.livejournal.com]

Or that you have the best weed ever.

[hilleviw.livejournal.com]

Music...the gateway drug. At least "They" are finally getting explicit about that.

[midnightsjane.livejournal.com]

Reefer Madness!
Now that brings back some memories...memories of sitting in the little community centre in the Slocan Valley with a whole bunch of my friends watching Reefer Madness...and laughing, and laughing. of course, everyone was totally stoned at the time, lol.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

of course, everyone was totally stoned at the time

....d00d, it is IMPOSSIBLE to watch RM otherwise!

[midnightsjane.livejournal.com]

lol, I know. I tried it once and it broke my brain...

[girlfan1979.livejournal.com]

With all the scare-tactics around pot going back to at least the 1930s, the best PSA the Partnership for a Drug-Free America come up with is that pot makes you want to listen to crappy music?

Are you kidding me?

Now, now. That would probably totally work on a teenage Dean Winchester.

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

Lately, all the evidence seems to be pointing toward the scary conclusion that people just keep getting stupider all the time.

Julia, I do not exclude myself, although I've finally finished another chapter.

[calendae.livejournal.com]

I'm actually pretty sure the new anti-drug ads (the ones that focus on how boring smoking pot makes you) are a direct response to the complete failure of the scare-tactic type ads. And they don't work *because* everybody knows that pot really isn't that dangerous for most people.

I doubt this new wave of ads are any more effective than the old wave, but at least they're closer to telling the truth about pot. It totally does make people boring. At least in my experience.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was my thought too. It's been fairly conclusively proved that threats to health and appeals from authority figures all have pretty much zero impact. Somehow I doubt "drugs are lame" is really going to have any effect either. Maybe if they legalize pot so it's less thrilling those sorts of campaigns may have some impact, but even then I doubt it.

The reason I don't do drugs is that I really hate loss of self control, and I've seen too many friends be total morons when drunk and/or high. I'd rather laugh at them than join them.

[(Anonymous)]

Here's a weird conversation with M.Mcgregor and some anonymous not-american person:

http://m-mcgregor.livejournal.com/97408.html

The More You Know...

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Clearly the message is that she doesn't want to smoke pot and listen to Widespread Panic (Grateful Dead-esque band.) She wants to go to Dimmu Borger concerts, snort coke, drink a fifth of Bourbon, and rock her metal heart out.

I mean... I thought that was obvious. ;)

[tessarin.livejournal.com]

Is Padawan still stuck in writers hell?

[darkluna.livejournal.com]

I dunno, if I bought that smoking pot would make me like the Polyphonic Spree, it would totally scare me away.

If I were making anti-drug ads, I'd just relate my own experience: one toke + one beer = puking in the bathroom all night. I've never even stayed in the same room as pot since.

[jakeexperience.livejournal.com]

The reason why comedy clubs have a two-drink minimum is so the audience will be drunk enough to laugh at rather lame material from the comedian and have a good time.

My question is, how is my eating a pot brownie and sitting down to watch a movie in the comfort of my own house any different than the aforementioned observation? The only side effects of using pot are a 2 AM trip to Taco Bell. Hey, maybe we could get Pepsico (who AFAIK owns Taco Bell) to support pot legalization. It might quadruple their business.

Now THAT's baking

[drmercurious.livejournal.com]

I herd that pot brownies don't even have a kick to 'em -- it's all an urban legend fueld by overactive imaginations. True?

Re: Now THAT's baking

[jakeexperience.livejournal.com]

^_^

False.

[mhael.livejournal.com]

What about the television PSA where the little girl gets hit by a car in a drive-thru... that she is inexplicably driving her tricycle through???

Ah.... I remember the days when I could ride my tricycle through fast food drive-thrus without having to look around for kids wacked out on the reefer. That was a simpler time, I tell ya.

The irony is, as better and simpler time as it was, my Mom always seemed sad when I came back from those romps through busy parking lots. I guess she was just seeing the writing on the wall or something. *grin*

[(Anonymous)]

I like the dog one too. The look on the girls face is priceless when the dog starts talking. I think my favorites are still the various versions of the Frying Pan PSA's, "This your brain on drugs...", especially the one where the girl destroys the kitchen with the frying pan. I also, got a kick out of the new Reefer Madness musical that came out a couple of years ago. But, for pure serious scares the original Reefer Madness still can't be beat.

[willowgreen.livejournal.com]

I read an article recently that claimed that these "soft-sell" anti-drug ads are more effective than the over-the-top "brain on drugs" variety. Teens don't believe it, or don't care, when adults tell them that drugs will ruin their lives. But suggest that drugs might make them look stupid, and they'll pay attention.

Which is why this ad makes no sense at all. I'm 45 and haven't smoked pot in decades, but even I might go to a concert with music I wasn't all that crazy about if a bunch of my friends cared enough to talk me into it. Heck, I went to a jazz guitar concert a year or two ago just because my husband asked me to go.

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

Okay. Um. I got it. Ready? See, the girl had no self-esteem and easily succumed to peer pressure so she would go along with her friends even though she didn't want to, and then she smoked pot because her friends did, but then she wised up and realised she could stand up for her self and say, "Hey. No more of this Yanni crap. And I'm not smoking dope, either. It's hip-hop and wine spritzers for me from now on!"

I always thought the best way to keep kids from drinking etc. was to show how easily they could embarass themselves. Kids don't think they are going to die, but point out the fact drinking can lead to accidentally peeing yourself in front of that cute guy in your gym class and they'll stay far away.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

Could it be a really bad anti-peer pressure campaign? Otherwise I've got nothing. I've never seen this PSA. I watch hardly anything at the time it comes on so I'm seriously behind on commercials.

Reefer Madness is an amazingly fun, if scary, musical.