When the Colorado governor’s office asked ad man Mike Sukle to design a campaign to discourage youth marijuana use, Sukle knew it wouldn’t be easy.
He’d done anti-methamphetamine campaigns before. But staying away from meth is an easier sell: Show some busted teeth, some pockmarked skin, no sweat.
How do you encourage kids not to use marijuana at a time when acceptance of pot is at historic highs and Colorado is more awash in conflicting marijuana messages than any place in the country?
“This was a tricky one,” Sukle said.
The result launches Monday, when workers begin dropping human-size rat cages around Denver and ads that acknowledge debate about how dangerous marijuana is begin running on television and in movie theaters.
The campaign is called “Don’t Be a Lab Rat.” The idea is to suggest to kids that Colorado has become a testing ground on the consequences of marijuana legalization — and they will be the test subjects if they use pot.
Sukle said the goal isn’t to scare kids CLICK TO KEEP READING
Author: Mile High Mamas
Mika
We have reduced teen tobacco use numbers to the lowest level any of our life times with 2 simple tricks. Both of which are really cheep and very effective.
Trick 1. We stopped allowing Teens to buy Tobacco.
Trick 2. We gave teens actual medical information about Tobacco use, otherwise knows and simple education.
The first one takes some laws getting passed, the second takes about a week in 6th grade heath class.
Christine
I agree that our approach to tobacco has been successful, and for the reasons you outlined. Honesty is truly the best policy when talking to anyone about the choices they make with their health, whether it has to do with substance use, diet, adherence to medication, or anything else.
The problem is that the decades-long policy of scheduling marijuana as a schedule 1 controlled substance in the Controlled Substances Act has made it nearly impossible to do prospective research on the effects of marijuana (both negative and potential benefits in certain medical circumstances). We can’t give teens knowledge that we don’t have, and at least this campaign acknowledges that.
Linda
We also made tobacco super expensive. A pack is almost somewhere between 1/2 to an hour of work @ minimum wage.
Mary
Teens are going to be lab rats whether they like it or not. Lab rats for unprecedented invasion of privacy, data collection, profiling by advertisers, gmo foods, fracking earthquakes, and who is the first generation to use facetime? the first generation of children to do so many things that are untested. sorry kids, you are lab rats.
Marta
it would be nice if someone would tell the truth about pot instead of
listening to all the potheads lack of any truth to it. the american
lung association tells the truth about pot and should be looked at
before any more fools vote to make it legal. it is sad to see colorado
lower its standards and allow pot to be legal. colorado has so much
more to offer and now we are drawing the wrong kind of people into this
state. just check out the homeless count that has went way up. what
kind of state are we going to leave our kinds