Government advertising

Former Member

but what i do resent is the government trying to make that choice for me. Advise is fine, even welcome, but not lies which is their curent approach.

Eb posted this in another thread, and it reminded me of something that I had intended to start a thread about, so here it is.

Walking to Brixton about a month ago I passed a big billboard with a government advert on it. The advert bore the slogan "Ecstasy - Which onE is the killer?" in big letters across the middle, and then several ectasy tablets in the background. Then at the bottom it said "Its the risk you take."
(I will try and get a picture of it)


At first I was fairly amused, and spent some time going through them seeing which ones I had done... I later saw the same advert around where I live, and thinking about it, it pisses me off. It is blantent scare-mongering by the government, suggesting that the chances of a pill killing you are so great that it is more than likely to happen.

Images like this give ecstasy a name it doesn't deserve. The government should take an honest approach to such matters, instead of decided what people want to do for them.

Former Member

If they were going to be honest, they would have a picture of a million Es. I think a really good idea for a campaign like that would be to rip off the lottery finger "It could be you"-onto a kid in a club-or have they already done that?

Former Member

But such campaigns don't show the facts. They are biased. Why don't they have a campaign sowing a load of humans saying which one is the murderer. You've got a much higher chance of getting murdered than dying on E. Or one with cars or pints?

Former Member

Well I would have thought that's obvious-the idea of the campaign is anti-drugs. Not anti murderers or anti drink. It may annoy people but it's still your own choice whether you take drugs or not. It is better than old style ads which just said "Just say no". I am not saying I agree with it, but all advertising is biased. The government doesn't want people taking drugs, so they are not going to pay for posters saying "drugs are great, I take 10 pills a week and I'm fine".

Former Member

Originally posted by KrazedKT:
<STRONG>The government doesn't want people taking drugs, so they are not going to pay for posters saying "drugs are great, I take 10 pills a week and I'm fine".</STRONG>

I'm not saying they should. I'm saying that some facts should be laid out.

Former Member

Facts, what facts?! I mean drugs are ILLEGAL so they are hardley gonna tell you the risks and say drugs, hmmm it's up to you. Of course they are going to portray them negatively.