Um. So I guess my reaction to this could be similar to watching a movie with a character that’s a total asshole and you say you hate it, and someone inevitably replies “but you were supposed to hate it”. Venables Bell & Partners created these four new print spots for the Montana Meth Project (are that many people in Montana doing meth…?) and they haven’t shied away from the shock value. “Sex”, “Bugs”, “Death”, and “Beating” – the names themselves go for the jugular. There are no punches being pulled here…
As with most shockvertising, these will get passed around the net and we’ll all gasp and feel weird for a couple seconds. Whether they’d actually deter someone from doing meth or not, I’m not so sure because the images are so graphic that I don’t think the actual message sinks in. Which is the problem with shockvertising. Reaction doesn’t equal assimilation of the message. I’m not so sure a young girl would look at this and make the “meth-addiction-prostitution-dirty whore-I don’t want to be a dirty whore-I won’t do meth” connection. I think she’s say “ew, gross” and put Hannah Montana back on. If I knew Pete Doherty, we could ask him how he feels about these, but I’m pretty sure he’s busy beating someone in an alley.
