Newsgroups: alt.drugs From: tom@genie.slhs.udel.edu (tom) Subject: Re: PDFA Brain commercial Message-ID: Date: Thu, 8 Apr 1993 20:18:07 GMT In article <1993Apr8.030909.12090@freenet.carleton.ca> ad197@Freenet.carleton.ca (Richard Stride) writes: } } What they were probably showing was a representation of cerebral }blood flow during a drug induced state. It was probably a PET scan using a }radiactive tracer lik 2 deoxy-glucose. The decreased blood flow often seen }if recreational drugs are used means less cortical activity or a state of }relaxation. But to be sure, check their references. what references? the PDFA isn't real big on including references in their commercials or pamphlets. in fact they usually refuse to provide any kind of references even if you call or write to ask about one of their ads (though they are very willing to send you a video tapes of them if you use the right tone when talking to them, just don't ask for references... but feel free to try: PDFA 666 3rd Ave New York, NY 10017 (212) 922-1560 -- tom@udel.edu ...!{gateway}!udel!tom tom@genie.slhs.udel.edu UDel: School of Life and Health Sciences "Themes were useless; Destiny was here, and the foot pedals were bleeding." ============================================================================= From: lintz@cis.udel.edu (Brian Lintz) Newsgroups: alt.drugs,talk.politics.drugs Subject: New York Times article about PDFA Date: 16 Mar 91 19:55:32 GMT This is from the New York Times, Saturday March 17, trimmed down slightly: On Toys to TV Shows, Stepping Up the Drug Fight by Joseph B. Treaster The people who produced captivating, and sometimes shocking, advertisements that helped turn public opinion against cocaine and other drugs are expanding their reach into the American psyche with thing like bumper stickers on toy cars and videos that play as mototists pump gasoline. The volunteer group of executives...has persuaded toy makers, gasoline station owners, producers of television dramas and manufacturers of school supplies to use the many ways in which they communicate with the public to convey antidrug messages. All this is intended to reinforce the blend of radio, television and print advertisements that the volunteer group, the Partnership for a Drug Free America, has been producing for four years - an ad campaign that rivals in scale that of companies like the Coca-Cola Company and AT&T. 'Time to Turn Up the Heat' (Stuff about drug use diminishing, but still a problem deleted) As part of the expanded campaign, Nikko America, which makes flashy, radio-controlled toy cars and trucks, will be putting out a group of vehicles over the next few months with bumper stickers declaring, "Drugs Are A Dead End." Some of the most popular television shows are already beginning to depict the dark side of drugs with a line of dialog, a scene or sometimes an entire segment. In January "Gabriel's Fire," a one hour television drama starring James Earl Jones, was devoted to the story of an abandoned infant born to a crack addict. "We're going to do more of this," said Leslie Moonves, the president of Lorimar Television, which produces the show and nine other prime time television programs, including "Knot's Landing," "Full House" and "Family Matters." Grant Tinker, a former chairman of NBC and now an independent producer, said he would include antidrug material in programs "whenever a story comes along that looks adaptable." A Massaschusetts company is distributing book covers with antidrug messages to high school students in 40 states, and some gas stations in Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma are showing 30-second videotapes on the dangers of illegal drugs on television screens peering down from the banks of self-service pumps. (stuff about PDFA's previous ads deleted) Now, the Partnership is increasing its emphasis on children and teenagers and, for the first time, creating specific themes for the inner city, where experts say the decline in drug use has been less pronounced. Starting with with Florida and Louisiana, it is also organizing state campaigns to intensify the national effort. Richard D. Bonnette, the executive director of Partnership, said the Walt Disney Company has agreed to create an animated character to help reach children. Artists and copywriters are working up designs for antidrug messages for cereal boxes and milk cartons, and David A. Miller, the president of the Toy Manufacturers of Amreica, said the members of his organization are devising ways to send out antidrugs messages with the roughly one billion toys they produce annually. "We're playing with several ideas," he said, including games and contests that would go on or into toy packages. "We're looking for something that has impact," he said, something that might be able to compete for a child's attention in the exicitement of receiving a new toy. Marsha Cathey, the creative director and advertising manager for Nikko America, said the antidrug bumper stickers "give the cars more realism," adding, " and we thought it was a good thing, the the responsible thing, for a toy manufacturer to do." (The rest of the article goes into how televison ads for PDFA were developed in 1987, etc. and so I didn't bother transcribing it. I apologize for an errors I may have made. - Brian Lintz) ============================================================================= From: awesley@vela.acs.oakland.edu (awesley) Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs Subject: Re: BOYCOTT BUDWEISER Date: 19 Jun 1993 01:41:46 -0400 Message-ID: rwiggins@vax1.umkc.edu writes: >For those of you interested, I recently heard from the head of Missouri NORML >that Anheiser-Busch provides 80% of the PDFA (partnership for a drug free >america) budget. Now I don't know if this is just in Missouri or nationwide, >[...] I dredged this from my hard drive, file dated Feb 92. ================================================================= allen h. lutins: More on PDFA... ...i noticed the PDFA's been a topic of late, but i haven't followed the thread, so excuse me if any of this stuff is dated...*but*...in case you were looking for nice $ amt. figures: ...this week's _Nation_ has a nice article entitled "Condoning the Legal Stuff? Hard Sell in The Drug War" about the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. It begins (well, second paragraph, actually): The Partnership means well, but it sends a self-serving message. The ads themselves exaggerate and distort, relying on scare tactics to get people's attention. Ad strategies are based on market research rather than public health policy. Even worse, the Partnership has accepted $5.4 million in contributions from legal drug manufacturers, while producing ads that overlook the dangers of tobacco, alcohol and pills. This "drug-free" crusade is actually a silent partner to the drug industry, condoning the use of "good" drugs by targeting the "bad" ones. ...they cite excellent examples of ads which PDFA had to pull because of the inaccuracies, and conclude (O.K., next to last two paragraphs) with these titillating numbers: The Partnership's funders are usually kept secret, says [Partnership spokesperson Theresa] Grant, to protect them from other grant seekers and from the legalization lobby. But the Partnership's 1991 tax return reveals another motive for secrecy: conspicuous support from the legal drug industry. From 1988 to 1991, pharmaceutical companies and their beneficiaries contributed as follows: the J. Seward Johnson, Sr., Charitable Trusts ($1,100,000); Du Pont ($150,000); the Proctor & Gamble Fund ($120,000); the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation ($110,000); Johnson & Johnson ($110,000); SmithKline Beecham ($100,000); the Merck Foundation ($75,000); and Hoffman-La Roche ($50,000) Pharmaceuticals and their beneficiaries alone donated 54 percent of the $5.8 million the Partnership took from its top twenty-five contributors from 1988 to 1991. That 54 percent is conservative. It doesn't include donations under $90,000, and it doesn't include donations from the tobacco and alcohol kings: The Partnership has taken $150,000 each from Phillip Morris, Anheuser-Busch ad RJR Reynolds, plus $100,000 from American Brands (Jim Beam, Lucky Strike). ...hmmmm :-\ [Note: reprinted without permission...no malice intended :) ] -- "In times of difficulty we must not lose sight / allen h. lutins of our achievements, must see the bright / vy8934@bingvaxa.bitnet future and must pluck up our courage." / vu0350@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu -Mao Zhedong, "Serve the People" 9/8/44 / "Individualists of the world Unite!" -- 23:02 --.politics.drugs-- LAST --help:?--Bot-- ================================================================= -- Here's a little .sig you can all join in with | It's very simple and I hope it's new | Tony Wesley Make your own .sig up if you want to | awesley@vela.acs.oakland.edu Any old .sig that you think will do. | Compu$erve: 72770,2053