The Montana Meth Ad Project

[Tref]

The image of a teenage boy beating up his own mother so he can steal money from her purse will not quickly fade from memory ...

... They say the ads also are getting results, having already helped spur a steep drop in teen meth use and meth-related crime in the state. Force yourself to sit through them, and it’s not hard to see why. The ads may offend some, but they’re much more likely to make you think twice about doing drugs than a shopworn slogan like “just say no.”

The ads

[Betty]

Got through 4 of them and I'm just in tears.

Went back and watched the rest. I hope they are effective.

[mousepod]

It's amazing how many young meth addicts come through the jail here. The recidivism rate is ridiculous - I keep seeing the same names over and over...

The ads are powerful - I hope they actually do something. I wonder what the success rate for anti-drug advertising is? How would one even measure it?

[blueerica]

Trends over months, years, have to be measured. Likely the measurements will come from arrests, convictions, mental health institutes, etc - so it's really hard to do.

I hope the ads do something, too. Honestly, among a number of other things, I won't touch meth because of what I saw it do to my cousin. I had tried speed once before and... nope, no need to do that again. My cousin began to look horrible due to the effects of the drug... much older than she actually was. I'd like to see a commercial with a line up of meth addicts and their ages. I've seen it in magazine articles, but a full-blown ad might bring it to the attention of younger people. Maybe.

The thing that worries me, especially when it comes to targeting this to teenagers, many of them believe that they're infallible to the effects of stuff like this. They think, "oh, I'll never do what that kid is doing to his/her parents." They think, "Oh, I won't do it long enough to have meth ravage my body."

But, I do think this is better than "Just Say No"

[wendybeth]

I think the 'Faces of Meth' program is a good one- you might not be able to turn a tweaker sober, but it appeals to the vanity of people who haven't got caught up in it yet. I think the program was started in the Midwest by an officer who was struck by the marked changes in meth users physical appearances in such short periods of time. He started compiling mug shots, contrasting first pics against ones taken a year or two later. It's scary how much damage it does in so little time.

Here's a few beauties from Multnomah County.

[cirquelover]

I remember The Faces of Meth being shown in Oregon last year. It was astonishing to see how much their faces had changed and some in a short period of time. It definitely showed me how to identify one!

I agree that I would hope it would appeal to the vain people and show them one very good reason not to start this stuff! They do have a lot of great programs, many done by students, here. They say it's working but whos statistics do you believe?!

[alphabassettgrrl]

The Faces pictures are scary. Hopefully it'll reduce the number of new users.

[BarTopDancer]

I hope it is effective with preventing new users. And I wish they were more wide spread. I think if any of them will have an effect it will be the "meth self talking" or the "I wish...." ads. The "parents" one had me in tears.