- Partnership for a Drug-Free America
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The Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA) is a non-profit organization that helps parents prevent, intervene in and find treatment for drug and alcohol use by their children. Bringing together renowned scientists, parent experts, and communications professionals, the Partnership translates current research on teen behavior, addiction, and treatment into easy to understand resources.
It holds a special position under law within the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.[1]
Contents
History
In the mid-1980s, a small group of advertising professionals discussed how to best use their talents to address the nation’s drug problem. They thought, if advertising could be used to sell products, couldn’t it be used to unsell them as well?[citation needed]
This core team formed the Media-Advertising Partnership for a Drug-Free America, a concept for a non-profit organization born from the American Association Advertising Agencies (AAAA). The idea was to harness the power of the media to turn the tide on teen drug abuse. This goal was implemented by compelling research-based consumer advertising. At the time the Partnership was created, the nation was in the throes of the crack cocaine epidemic. The Partnership focused its efforts to help reduce demand for those drugs through public service advertising (PSA) campaigns.
The organization first entered the wider public consciousness in 1987, with its This is Your Brain on Drugs broadcast and print public service advertisements (PSAs), which used the analogy that if a person's brain is an egg, then using illegal drugs would be like frying it. This advertisement became a hallmark for the organization.
The Partnership has won numerous advertising and efficacy awards for its PSA campaigns. Over the past two decades, the public service advertisements have grown to target more illegal drugs like heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy, marijuana, and others.
Criticism
PDFA was the subject of criticism when it was revealed by Cynthia Cotts of the Village Voice that their federal tax returns showed that they had received several million dollars worth of funding from major pharmaceutical, tobacco and alcohol corporations including American Brands (Jim Beam whiskey), Philip Morris (Marlboro and Virginia Slims cigarettes, Miller beer), Anheuser Busch (Budweiser, Michelob, Busch beer), R.J. Reynolds (Camel, Salem, Winston cigarettes), as well as pharmaceutical firms Bristol Meyers-Squibb, Merck & Company and Procter & Gamble. From 1997 it has discontinued any direct fiscal association with tobacco and alcohol suppliers, although it still receives donations from pharmaceutical companies.[2]
Satire
Some of the campaigns run by the PDFA have been either satirized or referred to in popular media.
In the comedy film Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004), John Cho and Kal Penn's characters are watching the Harmless PSA while intoxicated from marijuana. The advertisement in question features two teen boys smoking marijuana; one of them handles a gun and then fatally shoots himself, saying, "I'm so high, nothing can hurt me!".
On a segment of The Daily Show, Ed Helms showed a PDFA advertisement in which a stoned teenager takes out a gun and, not realizing that it is loaded, shoots his friend. At the end of the PSA Helms says, "Obviously this is a very effective commercial... for gun control. Come on parents, what were you thinking, leaving a loaded gun around teenagers? Are you high or something?"
The South Park episode "My Future Self 'n' Me" reflects on some campaigns run by the PDFA.
The Family Guy episode "Boys Do Cry" featured the character Meg lying on the couch deflated in reference to a PDFA commercial.
See also
Notes
- ^ All actors in PDFA television and radio spots appear without fee, courtesy of an agreement with the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
Sources
- ^ Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2006, Pub.L. 109-469, 120 Stat. 3501, enacted December 29, 2006, codified at 21 U.S.C. § 1708
- ^ Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
External links
- Official PDFA website
- aef.com, showcases select PDFA case histories
- [1] Autonomous Media Network
- Interview at PMAKid.com
Categories:- Civic and political organizations of the United States
- Non-profit organizations based in the United States
- Public service announcement organizations
- Companies established in 1986
- Drug policy of the United States
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