The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) announced that it will join forces with the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA) to launch a nationwide television campaign against marijuana use. This effort comes just two months after the ABC television network aired a month-long advertising and programming campaign against drug use.
In a June 17 press release, NAB declared that it will be distributing an anti-marijuana booklet to broadcasters at all NAB-member stations. The booklet, produced in cooperation with HHS Secretary Donna Shalala, gives examples of how stations can become involved in helping their communities “combat marijuana and other illegal drug use.”
“We are pleased that Secretary Shalala has asked us broadcasters to join in the fight against drug abuse,” said NAB President & CEO Edward O. Fritts. “Broadcasters have a distinct and special link to their audience and we are always happy when we can assist in the educational efforts for the communities that we serve.”
Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of The NORML Foundation, criticized the NAB’s involvement in the campaign. “Broadcasters have no business being involved in an anti-marijuana campaign that is based upon propaganda and half-truths,” he said. St. Pierre speculated that NAB-member stations may pattern this latest anti-marijuana campaign after the ABC television network’s recent anti-drug effort.
ABC’s crusade, which featured hourly public service announcements from the PDFA, drew generally low television ratings and was maligned by many in the media. Critics, such as nationally syndicated columnist Robert Scheer, labeled the effort hypocritical. “To create it’s ‘March on Drugs’ campaign, ABC turned to the Omnicon Group advertising agency, the same agency that handles the Anheuser-Busch account, which spends $156 million a year on network advertising,” Scheer wrote in a March 11 Los Angeles Times column. “This glaring double-standard demonstrates, once again, that we are serious only about ending drug abuse that does not turn a legal commercial profit. …Surely, … a warning that is transparently dishonest is worse than useless.”
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre of The NORML Foundation at (202) 483-8751.