a little further

with reality, but still further to go for truthfulness.

Posted by: letumubique99 on October 23rd, 2008.

high school

no need to give the kids any ideas

Posted by: heusinkveld on October 30th, 2006.

2nd ad

message is: "weed makes you do bad things and feel guilty about it the next day." but in any case, thanks, xatris, we might all criticize it but I'm not sure what I would do with this particular brief; I think it should reach its target fine. My favorite is the third one, even if its all confined in a car; the first one is the slickest.

Posted by: avisualperson on October 24th, 2006.

mostly awesome and not misleading

I like that they're not trying to sell me some bullshit about how pot kills my brain and destroys my life. They present what I think is the actual problem with substance use and abuse: it's a damn waste of time.
Caveat: the second ad was unclear and weird. What were they trying to say? I do not like.

Posted by: imisslincoln on October 19th, 2006.

let's be real about what we're really irked over.

if you're like me, you know a little something about being camped on a couch sucking down bowls and playing Radiohead's Kid A over and over and over again.

and if you're like me, you don't feel guilty/conflicted/unhappy or whatever about it.

so establish that you're against the message: "weed bad*".

now think of it in terms of a communication professional.
imagine you're a tragically hip designer/firm that gets hired to do a hip campaign for perhaps the most unhip message ever (*). to make matters worse, you're message is targeted at the most ad-resistent, hipper than thou audience ever (teenagers and college students).

this campaign is what you come up with.

under those constraints? i think it's a pretty successful.

so forget the message and think of the challenge of creatively presenting it.

Posted by: xastris on October 18th, 2006.

one other interesting angle

in the first spot, he gets up off the couch and....goes to a movie? That's "living life"?

so the message *really* appears to be: don't give your money to the guy selling weed, instead give it to Hollywood.

Nice ethics, those... (well, from the point of view of the corporations who run our government, anyway.)

Posted by: gravitycollapse on October 2nd, 2006.

hey cheeky...

...i'm just saying...ahem...in those times when i was on a couch smoking weed, there was generally a girl there with me. where are the girl stoners in these commercials? this whole campaign disgusts me, largely because it's basically a big lie.

Posted by: gravitycollapse on October 2nd, 2006.

stoners

Interesting angle--if you're stoned all the time, you're missing out on life. True, but think of the in-depth analysis of the sofa fabric pattern you'll be missing out on.

Posted by: camper on September 27th, 2006.

Gravity collapse is...

smoking too much weed, hence the confusion.

Posted by: cheekymonkey on September 27th, 2006.

weak just weak

I don't even understand the second one...he says "how did she get home...I was high...it wasn't me man" What the hell is he talking about? What happened and why do I care? I smoke so I should know but I was left completely confused and annoyed. Maybe that was the point? Distraction from smoking? hum...

Posted by: mimijung914 on September 26th, 2006.

truth

it's about time they stop scaring people, like showing someone smoking pot and running over a little girl. me likey.

Posted by: euroskip on September 26th, 2006.

confused

are they trying to teach us that smoking weed means you won't get girls?

Posted by: gravitycollapse on September 26th, 2006.