The 5 Most Ineffective Anti-Drug PSAs of All Time

Ah, drugs: the heady highs, the crippling lows, the preachy anti-drug commercials that exist somewhere in between. Together with Cops, anti-drug ads taught us the valuable lesson that drug addiction, if serious enough, will get you on national TV. And as Fear Factor has proven, the generation of men and women who grew up in the '80s will eat a horse's penis to get on TV, so drug addiction doesn't sound like such a bad option, now does it? Here are five classic anti-drug ads, our analysis of what they set out to do and the unintended consequences they actually had.

5) Poultry Insults Hurt

This commercial follows the basic rule of threes: its 30 seconds long, there are three joints in the dealer' hand and the little kid looks like he's 3 feet tall. Yes, the cut to the classroom full of children is distracting and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles come across as total pussies, but its all worth enduring just to see the tiny dude' ridiculously corny putdown, which somehow crushes the marijuana enthusiast' feelings.

Unintended Consequence: First of all, was this really an at-risk demographic? The suburban, 6-year-old, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-viewing audience was really teetering on the brink of drug addiction prior to this ad? In addition to introducing 6-year-olds to the concept of marijuana, the ad teaches them that kids in the know call it "pot," that abstaining from "pot" will make you extremely short while dealing drugs will make you look like the cool/dangerous older brother from Home Improvement. The one positive affect the ad has is that once the kids the ad is aimed at finally do start smoking pot, it makes for some hilarious late night viewing.

4) Your Brain on Drugs

Probably the most famous of all anti-drug PSAs, this ad has a tone of gruff condescension that always felt a little unearned. After making what is at best a muddled metaphor, the voiceover guy says "any questions" in a way that implies that if you do have questions, he's going to punch you in the mouth. Well, actually, since you're asking, we do have a question: What the fuck do you have against fried eggs, man? I mean, they're certainly better than the salmonella-laced raw eggs that our brain presumably was before we fried it in the delicious sizzling butter (read: drugs).

Unintended Consequence: Thinking about this ad while stoned actually clued us in to the vast PSA conspiracy against America's Chicken Farmers. Think about it, there are PSAs for all sorts of cattle byproducts: milk, cheese, beef. Those "Pork: The Other White Meat" spots play like campaign ads in some sort of meat-election that pork is running in against chicken. In fact, the only time chickens or chicken byproducts are overtly mentioned in a PSA, its either as an insult from a hulking drug dealer, or as a metaphor for junky brains like in this one.

3) Anti-drug Canadian rap

As Snow proved with his breakout 1993 hit "Informer," even if they're talking about drugs, Canadians should never rap. Apparently, whoever is spitting hot fire about brain blisters and trouble with the law in this commercial didn't get the memo. This ad-an odd mixture of those Barney music videos and an acid freak out-is based on the premise that kids might get confused between the sorts of drugs that are prescribed by doctors and the kind that you get on the street. Which brings us to an important question: are there Canadian drug dealers out there posing as doctors to get little kids to try drugs? Because if so, we've heard of some hardcore shit in Jay-Z songs, but apparently our drug dealers don't have shit on their Canadian brethren.

Unintended Consequence: To tell you the truth, we never saw this ad growing up, but if we had it would have made us want to move to Canada. With the American anti-drug ads all you get is death, pregnancy and gay turtles. In Canada, you get some cool dude talking jive about how there might be trouble with the law, but right after he says it the kids are partying up with mustachioed cops and smiling parents. The chorus says it all: "drugs, drugs, drugs!" We're pretty sure they took that from a Doors song.

142 Comments

  1. Aayee

    • 0

    This is you brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any Questions?

    Yeah... isn't that an egg in a frying pan?

    Reply
  2. Hayleyk

    • 0

    no, no. The worst unintended consequence of the canadian anti-drug rap is that people still sing that song at parties. And not out of respect.

    Also, the one second "your brain on drugs ad" is a rip-off of an episode of Roseanne. Only when she did it, it was a joke.

    Reply
  3. DennisMichaelBean

    • 0

    You know who should never rap? British people! A friend of mine from England brought some of that to work and I could not stop laughing. Such an accent, with rap.

    Reply
  4. kunlever

    • 0

    rachel leigh cook... so fine so fine!

    Reply
  5. TrevorTremble

    • 0

    I had the pleasure of seeing the "This is your brain" commercial while on several hits of high grade acid, and man, did it ever have an effect on me. That ad was the SHIT!!!, The close-up shot of the egg frying in the bubbling oil, the way the sound phased from speaker to speaker, hell, forget by brain, this was an Ad Agency on drugs. Trippy s**t man.

    Reply
  6. Ann03

    • 0

    "I'm not chicken! You're a turkey!"

    Laughing my ass off at that one. In real life, that kid would've barely opened his mouth before a drug dealer blew him away.

    I honestly didn't realize that was Rachel Leigh Cook in that "smashing the kitchen" video. And the pool one actually did freak me out as a kid-still kinda does, that music's really disturbing.

    As for that Canadian one...what in the ever loving hell was that? Other than my idea of a total nightmare, I mean.

    Reply
  7. ScorpioBabe

    • 0

    Anyone else get an ad for "Sober College" at the end of this article?

    Reply
  8. Annihilator820

    • 0

    Rachel Leigh Cook: The original Demopan.

    (Making stupid pointless comments is fun.)

    Reply
  9. Mr.Annoying

    • 0

    Your list is incomplete without the Pee Wee Herman anti-drug commercial.

    No, I am not kidding. There really was such a thing.

    Reply
  10. Tuloola

    • 0

    Didn't the Nostalgia Critic do a Top 11 with all these videos in this order too?

    Reply
  11. ryans92

    • +3

    This article is from 2006, yet one of the videos is from 2007. 0_0

    Reply
  12. mouze

    • +3

    If you do heroin, Rachel Leigh Cook will come to your house and f**k you up royally with a frying pan.

    Reply
  13. BearFighter

    • +2

    They're wasting time and money on commercials they need to fly that Rachel girl to people's homes, if she busted up my kitchen and screamed about heroin like that I would probably stay away from it just fearing she might find out and come back

    Reply
    1. valmont

      • 0

      I'd probably call the police, and hole up in my room with a rifle, sobbing like a 5 year old. That ad scared the crap out of me when I was little, but not the way it meant to.

  14. Uberpenguin

    • -1

    I'm pretty sure that the groups that made these commercials were like "Guys, I can't think of a good way to appropriately scare kids into not using drugs!"
    "I can't either...but wait, I have a plan! I know just the thing to make us both creative and paranoid as hell!"
    *produces and lights a joint*
    Thus they set the standard for all future anti-drug PSA brainstorming sessions. Maybe that's why they seem to mention food items so much...

    And those poor Canadian kids are going to be so confused when they get older...they're going to meet someone who deals pharmaceuticals and are going to say "But I was told not to take any drugs that don't come from a doctor!" to which the dealer can respond "Yeah, these did come from a doctor.", and next thing ya know all the Canadian kids will be downing painkillers and benzos such like there's no tomorrow. Good thing oxycontin 160s are still legal in canada I suppose...

    P.S.: heroin doesn't actually have a very profound effect whatsoever on your body, and is pretty much harmless in proper doses. It's addiction, overdose, and sometimes nasty stuff that street drugs get cut with that does a number on people, not the drug itself. Even the withdrawal, although it feels god awful s****y as hell, is itself benign. So no, Mr. smashed egg is not your brain on dope...

    Reply
  15. MorrSyn

    • +2

    "Drugs, drugs, drugs!" My new anthem for the week.

    Reply
  16. WindamEarle

    • +2

    The spoof they did of #4 on Robot Chicken was pretty funny.

    They even got Rachel Leigh Cook to do the voice.

    Reply
    1. Daviticus

      • 0

      It was #2, but I agree, the parody was awesome!

  17. partofme

    • +5

    Mmmm...brain and bacon.

    Reply
    1. AmeliaBedelia

      • 0

      Pork brains are delicious. Add bacon and egg to that and HOT DAMN we got a meal! Sign me up for some more drugs, tasty PSA!

  18. SonyFoLife

    • +1

    now i want a fried egg sandwhich
    damnit cracked...

    Reply
    1. MorrSyn

      • 0

      I just had some eggs with a chicken pot pie. mmmm

  19. Hollykim

    • +4

    Rewatching that "this is your brain on drugs" ad made me realize that everyone I've ever met has been quoting it backwards.

    Reply
  20. darqjade

    • +6

    the one with the empty pool made me scared of pools,not pot

    Reply Hide All See All 3 Replies
    1. RonColl02

      • +1

      I guess the message implies that marijuana makes you so fucked up, that you can't tell that a pool is dry, even if you are capable of changing into swimsuits, and walking onto a diving board.

    2. Daviticus

      • 0

      I actually liked that one. I think it was supposed to be a metaphor for "diving" into a drug-fueled lifestyle.

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