January 16, 2004
Public Service Announcement
Truth is, I am not one of those guys going around screaming that marijuana should be legal. Do I think it is silly that it is not, sure, but I am not going to go join some advocacy group. Still watching tv recently (yeah, I know, that was my first mistake) I have seen an incredibly annoying "PSA" for the war on drugs, maybe you have seen this too.
In it, they show a kid sitting at a roadside memorial and say that in one third of all fatal accidents the driver tested positive for marijuana. This is in no way a lie, but it's implication is misleading. They fail to mention that alcohol is present in more than 50%, and almost the entire third mentioned earlier falls into this category. While alcohol will only stay in your system for a few hours, and marijuana stays for days, this only proves that the person is irresponsible.
First off they were driving drunk, which I am sure we can all agree plays a pretty large factor in the accident. This shows the person is fairly irresponsible to begin with, so to say that they smoked pot, is not a far stretch. The point is that there are irresponsible people out there. A blatant disregard for the law, seems to show a person may not be all that concerned with other factors. Yet this is never mentioned.
This is very much like the "www.thetruth.com" commercials. In their antismoking campaign ads they have spewed more propaganda than the Nazi party. See, that is how you do it. Throughout history there have been so many to use propaganda on a daily basis, yet I use the Nazi's as an example, thus creating an association.
The fact is that there are more factors involved than any of these groups talk about, and neither are lying. It is all in how you say things kids. The information that you leave out, can often make what you say more powerful. They don't say in the marijuana PSA that these people were under the influence of marijuana at the time of the accident, all they say is that person HAD smoked marijuana recently enough to still test positive. That is all.
In a "Crazyworld" ad from www.thetruth.com tv spot, they have a parking lot game show where they have to find the product in the shopping cart without ingredients listed on it. Of course, it is the pack of cigarettes. They proclaim "even bottled water lists ingredients." What they don't mention is that alcoholic beverages do not. Neither do many over the counter and prescription drugs (though they will list the main ingredients, they do leave many off.)
The fact is that these are nothing more than propaganda. The question that remains is, does misleading advertising help or hurt the groups in the long run, and where do these "soldiers for health" draw an ethical line? Sure, I am all for keeping kids from picking up the habbit, but is misleading people the best way to do it?
Posted by tony at 09:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
