Chicago, IL: White House sponsored anti-drug ads targeting marijuana and other illicit drugs foster unfavorable responses from three-quarters of those who view them, according to the results of a study presented last week at the 16th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Society in Chicago.
Researchers at Texas State University analyzed written qualitative narratives of 53 college students’ unanticipated thoughts about the ads. The anti-drug spots “produced substantially more unfavorable (195) than favorable thoughts (48),” authors noted.
“For example, in response to ads linking drug use to the war on terror, the most frequent unanticipated thoughts were that marijuana should be legalized, the war on drugs has been ineffective, and that marijuana users should grow their own,” said lead author Maria Czyzewska of the Texas State Department of Psychology. “This is a classic example of the boomerang effect: commercials producing a response that is precisely the opposite of what the ads’ creators intended.”
A previous four-year evaluation of the ads performed by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and commissioned by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found that they fail to alter teens’ perceptions of pot or reduce its use among young people. “Youth who were more exposed to Campaign messages are no more likely to hold favorable beliefs or intentions about marijuana than are youth less exposed to those messages,” the evaluation concluded.
Since 1997, Congress has spent more than $1.2 billion in taxpayer dollars and matching funds on the federal ad campaign, titled “The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.”
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of the NORML Foundation at (202) 483-5500.