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Soon after, in 1986, a group of like-minded advertising executives formed the Partnership For A Drug Free America, with the stated goal of conditioning kids to reject drugs by using the same branding and marketing techniques they had honed in their advertising jobs. Basically, the idea was, if we were able to convince kids to garb themselves in corporate logos, then we can surely convince them to not do drugs.

These groups released a flurry of anti-drug commercials during the late 80's (see sidebar: Oldies But Goodies), but as the decade changed they tapered off, leaving the airwaves relatively silent on the topic of drug use prevention. Oh, sure, you might have heard someone on a cartoon opine that "crack is wack" every now and then, but for the most part the sentiment had faded away from the public spotlight.

All of that changed in 1998 when the Office for National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the Partnership For a Drug Free America joined forces. Together, they launched the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (such catchy names!), which received a billion dollar blessing from Congress. Soon enough, a wave of new anti-drug commercials were flooding the airwaves, seemingly making up for lost time.

These new campaigns can be divided into three main groups, as we will see below.

The Anti-Logic
The group's first batch of efforts were mostly inspirational spots featuring athletes and celebrities. Folks such as Michael Johnson, Mary J Blige, Venus and Serena Williams, Carol O'Connor, Lauren Hill, Everclear, and the Dixie Chicks appeared on camera to tell the teens at home that their varied successes would not have been possible had they been dope fiends.

Other commercials showed teens things they could do instead of drugs, and things they would supposedly be unable to do if on drugs: swimming, drawing, boxing, and so forth. The theme here was "The Anti-Drug" (I don't know why, but it really cracks me up to see a commercial with the tagline "Boxing. The Anti-Drug"…. I can't help but picture some kid mugging people with a shrug: "Hey, it's my Anti-Drug. I ain't smoking reefer, am I?" Furthermore, I wish I was in elementary school right now so I could somehow get trumpeted out by officials at some meeting with the promise to renounce dope on stage, only to cheerily announce "Alcohol is my anti-drug!" That'd be goddamn hilarious. But I digress…).

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