This is bad news. In addition to all sorts of other nasty consequences, we now know that more speed use leads directly to more HIV infection. It's time for some creative thinking on how to slow it down.

Let's imagine that drug abuse prevention is entirely in the hands of advertising agencies, rather than doctors, schools, and Government bureaus. Let's assume that Congress has voted a billion dollars to hire one big ad agency to blunt the "speed epidemic." Now, visualize the agency's pitch to the Drug Czar:

"Speed adds to its market share about 150,000 new users each year. Our job is to cut down this market share, to under 100,000 and preferably to under 50,000 new users."

"Our agency, as you know, did the Joe Camel campaign a few years back. Now, millions of people think 'cool/hip/worldly-wise' whenever they see the Camel icon. The result was a big gain in market share for Camel cigarettes."

"We claim we can do the same, flip side, for speed- that is, associate the 'icon' of speed with a negative image which will drive down market share."

"The icon of speed is the stereotyped way people behave on the drug- hyper, talkative, expansive. We think this can be conveyed, by a young male actor, in a few seconds of audiovisual material. But in a few more seconds, we can communicate two more bits about this guy: that he's insensitive- he doesn't much care about the people around him- and that he lacks integrity- he's gonna be a very different person after he crashes. In other words, he's a jerk."

"Our campaign will create dozens of versions of this, using different actors and different ethnic and geographic settings. With our budget, we can saturate TV airspace. The constant repetition will hammer home the association: tweaker equals jerk."

These imaginings, to me, suggest why ad agencies might succeed where others have failed: they know how to seduce the viewer, and they drum home a simple message. The key question is, if that simple message is for people to think "jerk" when they think "speed", will lots fewer of them try the stuff? If the answer is yes, then it is an easy matter to prove that a billion dollars is an investment that will repay itself handsomely.

(printer friendly version)