I don’t trust advertisers any further than I can kick them (and I’m not Adam Vinatieri).
Nonetheless, I turn to the South Dakota Advertising Federation, nine of whose member agencies apparently bid unsuccessfully for the $1,375,000 contract that Governor Kristi Noem awarded to Minneapolis ad agency Broadhead to put up billboards and YouTubes saying we’re all on meth, for their take on the effectiveness and wisdom of Noem’s expenditure of taxpayer dollars:
South Dakota has an incredible pool of talent in terms of advertisers and marketers, as well as young talent that is continually desiring to enter our in-state workforce.
When public, in-state entities decide to award large advertising budgets to out-of-state companies, we can’t help but throw a red flag and remind the public of the implications.
Our in-state talent is incredibly in tune with the opportunities and challenges our state holds. We are acutely aware of the seriousness of the issues currently affecting our state. And we are passionate about our state’s future.
Nine in-state agencies, among others, desired to work on the Meth Awareness Campaign recently launched on November 18. A campaign tackling a serious, real and devastating epidemic. A campaign that should not be taken lightly.
The budget dollars that are now exiting our state could have been put to great use here. They could have saved positions at agencies that are looking for new business. The dollars could have given new graduates opportunities to stay in state. The dollars could have delivered a message by South Dakotans that resonates with South Dakota.
This holiday season – and all year round – please consider the incredible talents, retailers and opportunities we have here in South Dakota. Please patronize them and feel good about stimulating in-state economy and providing additional and new opportunities.
Respectfully,
South Dakota Advertising Federation [press release, 2019.11.19]
SD Ad Fed’s board includes Luke Tatge of Epicosity, the Sioux Falls ad firm that had a DSS contract for $51,252.54 to revitalize the “Meth Changes Everything” anti-drug campaign during the first part of 2019, effort which the Governor has apparently thrown away. SD Ad Fed’s board also includes Tim Hoss of perennial GOP advertising favorite Lawrence & Schiller, which knows a thing or two about making big money on guffaw-worthy state ad campaigns.
Noem believes the campaign is effective because people are now talking about meth. People are talking about the campaign, not about meth. The campaign has cannibalized its own message.
https://www.facebook.com/bob.newland/posts/10156326114596230?notif_id=1574216415854255¬if_t=feedback_reaction_generic
What a waste. What a humiliating waste of SD’s scarce resources and human potential.
But bringing awareness to the issue and shedding light on the scumbags pushing this crap is the first step. In that, Noem has accomplished the goal. She has hit the mark.
I would have done a different campaign, but what she did do was tell the truth. The truth NOT THE CAMPAIGN, is the true embarrassment to SD. Get the METH THE HELL OUT OF HERE, and punish the people pushing that crap.
Debbo – “What a waste. What a humiliating waste of SD’s scarce resources and human potential.”
Yes, meth is a complete waste of human potential. Not only is it cheating, it’s slow suicide of the mind and soul.
I contend the only awareness raised here is that places as far away as Japan and Antarctica now know how monumentally stupid our governor is. Imagine quietly spending $1.375 MILLION on treatment programs, counselors and other resources to help meth addicts instead of wasting it on an ad campaign that makes us all look like idiots. Almost $1.4 MILLION taxpayer dollars would have stayed in South Dakota, we would actually be doing something about the problem AND we wouldn’t be an international laughingstock. But you can bet money No Show is just basking in all this attention. Debbo is right. What a humiliating waste.
“$1.375 MILLION on treatment programs” – 1.4 million bucks won’t touch this problem.
But it’s a start .. education is key. Awareness is key. Getting us talking about this poison that is used to enslave young girls to the sex trade is a start. Meth is nasty .. it’s gross .. like puking in your own hair kind of disgusting.
So, John Dale, you advocate death for those who scratch their itch while you advocate life and joy for you scratching yours?
Meth is a problem. A big one. It tears apart neighborhoods, friendships, and destroys people’s lives. Ms Noem is touting that this “Meth, we’re on it” slogan is bringing attention to the issue. Sorry John Dale, it is NOT the kind of attention that is needed to address this. Becoming a laughing stock isn’t hitting the mark.
To compound the idiotic slogan, an out-of-state company was hired to do this whole thing. South Dakota Advertising Federation has a very reasonable bone to pick.
Hopefully, and I’m crossing my fingers here, but……I’m curious if there are any personal ties with this Minnesota company and anybody in Pierre. I hope not, but corruption being what it is in this state, who knows. I hope not.
CIRD – “you advocate death for those who scratch their itch”
Meth is not cannabis.
Meth is not water.
Meth is not life.
Meth IS death.
It creates negative externalities that violate the liberties of the people around it .. it usurps agency because of its hyper addictive nature (cannabis is NOT addictive).
I am not a pure Libertarian because I believe there is free will. However, I do intersect on many issues with Libertarians. Cannabis is one.
Meth is not one.
CIRD
You can’t possibly equate cannabis to meth. I am in John Dales camp.
Unfortunately our Governor thinks like you and lumps these two substances together.
Meth is death.
It is a scourge on our world.
Some people (KRISTI) actually can’t differentiate between hemp and cannabis and that is the problem.
Educate yourself.
Noem’s team is genius on this one. The “Meth, We’re On It” campaign was just featured on InfoWars.com
13:50 in the attached video .. Alex Jones makes fun of SD for the campaign, brining MILLIONS into the loop that a serious problem exists.
https://www.infowars.com/u-s-relations-with-china-were-just-destroyed-and-nothing-will-ever-be-the-same-again/
You CANNOT pay InfoWars.com for this kind of advertising!!!
John Dale doesn’t give two whoops in hell about any of this, he just wants to argue against the majority POV and 5G.
I’m disappointed the SD Advertising Federation didn’t criticizes the campaign in their release. They talked about job and business loss which are important but the most important fact is this campaign is a dog and isn’t doing what the state hoped it would do.
mike from iowa – speak for yourself .. you have no idea what I care about.
My views are independently vetted. It just so happens that what is correct is not represented very well in the body politic. It’s not an indictment of me. It’s an indictment of the established political system.
I write using my first and last names. I don’t hide from anyone, I tell the truth as I know it. It’s why some people respect me, and others like you seem to hate me.
Have a super day,
John Dale
Alex Jones is doing an expose’ on the campaign right now.
He’s lamenting that we didn’t do the traditional “meth kills” campaign.
In reality, the campaign is genius and bringing ALL KINDS OF ATTENTION to the issue.
SD has a HUGE meth problem (gee thanks Air Force).
Is that where our famous “work ethic” comes from?
I. ABSOLUTELY. LOVE. THIS. CAMPAIGN.
GREAT JOB Governor Noem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All that matters is what the outcome ends-up being with this campaign.
I predict meth use will plummet after this campaign.
It’s not making it a forbidden fruit .. it is shaming those who use meth.
Did I mention I LOVE THIS CAMPAIGN!!!!!
Don’t do meth, kids.
:D
“Meth, we’re on it” is like Barry Bonds admitting he did steroids.
It falsifies his claim to the home run record.
Rampant meth use falsifies SD’s claim to have a superior work ethic.
If you want to see a real work ethic, take a peek at what happens in our little new venture incubator .. and we do it all without Meth.
Let’s be clear – if you don’t like the meth campaign, you and Alex Jones are lock-step.
America IS ON METH!!! It’s TRUE!!!
Anybody else catch DSS Sec. Laurie Gill on NPR today ?. She gushed on and on about the meth program. Twice the interviewer had to cut her off when she couldn’t get her mouth out of gear.
I will be watching this campaign very closely, but if there is a way to measure accurately, my instincts tell me that this campaign makes meth really uncool, and that use will drop precipitously.
The libertarian point of view seems generally flawed, yet that view on the policy mistake of using our criminal laws to jail or, as CIRD puts it, “kill,” people that “scratch their meth itch,” has strong factual support on a non-libertarain basis.
We have implemented public policies criminalizing involvement with a variety of substances from marijuana, cocaine, heroin, et al, in the 1930’s to meth in mid 1995 or thereabouts. We now have considerable factual evidence that clarifies the actual efficiency and effectiveness of criminalization in stopping or reducing the personal use of such substances. As to meth, evidence shows that:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2883188/
In reality the available evidence shows that criminalization of meth has only succeeded in further wrecking the lives of meth users and increasing the population and expense of our jails and prisons, but has not stopped, or even significantly reduced meth use. The same apparently holds true with the criminalization of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other recreational drugs. See e.g.,
https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.21.2.134
Add to the evidence ineffectiveness of imprisoning or killing drug users the evidence of the significant increase in social and financial costs of criminalization from investigation, prosecution, imprisonment, and post-imprisonment monitoring, and it appears abundantly clear that criminalization has so far proven itself to be a costly but failed policy effort that has repeated failed to advance the goal of stopping or significantly reducing meth use.
As Albert Einstein observed, “insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.” If we really want to do something to effectively address the meth problem maybe its time to actually consider the factual evidence rather than to rely on emotional knee jerk responses jailing people and further damaging their lives or coming up with childish slogans.
Yet, highlighting the ridiculousness and frivolity of making illegal a substance demanded and used by the US military, doctor prescribed, and advocated in music is a legitimate and helpful goal (if achieved) of Noem’s campaign.
We’re on it .. especially for ADD:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_and_culture_of_substituted_amphetamines
“During the Persian Gulf War, amphetamine became the drug of choice for American bomber pilots, being used on a voluntary basis by roughly half of U.S. Air Force pilots..”
Rapid City has a pretty big meth problem, doesn’t it?
Tsitrian’s explanation is the most apropos response I’ve heard yet to Noem’s flailing defense of her error.
The purpose of the campaign was to bring attention to the issue ..
If that was the goal, she hit a GRAND SLAM HOME RUN.
It was even featured on InfoWars.com for like 5 minutes.
The people who won’t like it fall into three main categories:
1 – people making a lot of money from meth
2 – people who use meth and don’t think it’s a bad drug
3 – people who aren’t sympathetic to the goal of “awareness”
This thing went MEGA VIRAL.
GREAT JOB TEAM NOEM.
Good commentary, CIRD. If Kristi wants a conversation about the real issue, we should frame it around the questions CIRD offers. Seriously, what does it mean for any one of us to say we are “On It™”? What are each of us supposed to be doing to fight the meth epidemic? Aside from not doing meth myself and doing everything I can to convince my child not to do meth, what am I supposed to do? I hope I’m not expected to go out looking for meth labs to bust them up and report the cooks—that generally worked out poorly for people who happened upon Walter White’s illegal activity.
It seems to me that for a community as a whole to say “We’re On Meth” requires the community to say, ‘We’re going to pay more taxes to provide the real services—not money-wasting marketing campaigns, but real expert staff and services—that help people kick their addictions. We’re going to provide better schools and pay better wages to make sure everyone has more opportunities to keep them from falling into the despair that drives people to drug use. We’re going to give a good gosh-darn about each other and stop bullying and excluding people, so that everyone feels like they belong here and is thus further protected from drug-abuse-inviting despair.”
If we’re really on it, we need to really do something about it. A viral ad campaign does not count as really doing something… other than, in this case, making our state look like attention-addled idiots.
Cory – I’m hopeful this will get people engaged in the conversation. I think most folks are just told to shut up. In music, food service, and construction, meth is used to put in longer hours, creating negative health effects.
Rather than talking about Noem’s campaign, let’s talk about the fact that South Dakota, rightfully so because of its meth-fueled “work ethic”, is the laughing stock of the nation.
We have a meth problem, and meth is just not cool.
Turning the campaign into a political football to score some cheap political points creates an opportunity cost to, as a community, through our culture, push back on the abusers of meth.
This comes from Drey Samuelson’s FB post:
Friend, Paul Loveland–“On the off chance that this brilliant ad campaign isn’t enough to get all the meth users in SD to quit, Governor Noem might want to consider Medicaid expansion. Federal dollars would cover the cost of detox and treatment facilities.
“I hear that works almost as well as embarrassingly bad double entendre ad campaigns.”
https://www.modernhealthcare.com/…/opioid-abuse…
Goal: build awareness.
Result: MEGA viral coast to coast campaign that brought millions upon millions to the issue.
Score: A+
I’m not a Noem supporter in general (you have to know this). But there is no arguing with the results of this awareness campaign.
It was a slam dunk.
A home run.
A touchdown.
A hole in one.
A .. you get the idea.
I bet the website is getting TONS of traffic right now .. probably keeping some sys admins really busy!
If, in fact, meth was an extraordinarily harmful and dangerous drug such that using it would inevitabilty harm users then most people would not use it. Instead, this theme apparently is not supported by the personal experiences of people who try and use meth despite its illegality. That would be the only rational explanation why there are apparently a significant number of people who try meth and use meth. As with marijuana they likely recognize the hype about meth is simply BS.
Indeed, meth apparently has many positive effects on users:
Ironically, laws criminalizing meth actually result a more dangerous form of homemade meth on the street, in contrast to clinically produced meth.
Like alcohol, meth is not a “bad” drug nor an “evil” substance and taking steps to eradicate meth is not a beneficial policy. Like alcohol, the problem is meth abuse. And fortunately, just as with alcohol, there seems to be a relatively large percentage of meth users who have not, and will not abuse meth to the extent that they become addicted, commit crimes, or hurt themselves in some other way.
https://psmag.com/social-justice/the-many-surprising-health-benefits-of-meth
(all of the quoted material in this comment is from this source)
Rather than attempting to lock up all meth users, or stigmatize all meth use, perhaps a more rational public policy would be to help those people who are in fact harmed by their abuse of meth. Like Cory, I would encourage everyone to refrain from using alcohol, meth, marijuana, or any mind altering substance for recreation. But like CIRD, I recognize that other people have different views and that I have no business supporting some government policy that punishes them for their different views. Likewise the government has no business pushing false propaganda about any substance with the goal of “stigmatizing” users.
I lived next to meth corridors for almost 20 years.
Meth is a terrible drug that is used to sex-enslve teenage girls, it is NOT an essential nutrient.
Its users have every reason to experience psychological consternation that, hopefully will cause them to recount how they got pulled into such a terrible thing.
Ask the Lakota leadership about meth on the reservation.
Ask Antifa what happens when the meth is flowing.
Bikers don’t seem to mind it .. but are you seriously defending meth, bearcreekbat?
I think you’re trying to be nuanced regarding enforcement and punishment, which is a good direction. However, presuming that meth should NOT be schedule I and Cannabis de-scheduled is, for me, a non-starter and argument that cannot be supported.
My friends and family suffered from meth use. Some still do.
It’s easier to police cannabis because of its size and smell. Meth, on the other hand, is a real challenge for law enforcement.
Meth, ricin, cocaine, fentinol, heroine – all for me should not be in the supply chain.
One of my major reasons for cannabis legalization advocacy is to take the revenue stream away from dealers of these horrible ingestibles.
I’m still giggling at how genius this campaign has been ..
Good one, Debbo.
Dale, yes, I am defending “meth” since it is neither good nor evil, rather, it is simply a chemical. I am not defending the abuse of meth or any other substance. Indeed, although I object to using criminal law to to address abuse, rather than the seperate crimes committed during that abuse such as violence or theft, as I indicated in my earlier comment, “Like Cory, I would encourage everyone to refrain from using alcohol, meth, marijuana, or any mind altering substance for recreation.”
You say your “friends and family suffered from meth use,” but don’t describe the particular type of suffering you reference.
Some of my friends and family “suffered from meth use” too. The nature of their suffering was being arrested and sent to prison. Likewise some of my friends and family “suffered from marijuana use” by being arrested and sent to prison.
Inflicting that type of suffering is what I argue is flawed policy, primarily based on factual reality and long term public experience demonstrating such polices to be ineffective and more a source of harm to the individual than the harm typically caused by the mere use of a drug.
Debbo makes a good point, Republicans are always the first ones to cut social services programs. ALWAYS. Everywhere there is dire need for more mental health counselors, substance abuse counselors, psychiatrists, treatment facilities but ESPECIALLY in SD. I don’t know why Noem is so fixated on meth. This must be so embarassing for South Dakotans. It’s actually kind of stigmatizing drug abuse which is the last thing you want with people struggling with this kind of problem. Don’t stigamtize it, Idiot Republicans! I hope SDs high suicide rate doesn’t increase even more with this idiot governor in Pierre. Just no empathy at all.
The consequences for my family:
Deteriorating health. Degraded neurology and the inability to learn and function in the domain of abstract thought. Addiction, dental decay, malnutrition, severe paranoia. One girl I knew from high school shot herself in the head while on meth and playing RR. I have had a family member sent to Prison for selling it.
There is more, but I’m going to refrain out of respect.
I think that once legal, Cannabis should be considered by everyone as an essential nutrient. It won’t be for everyone, but some people have bodies tuned to optimize the cocktail of essential oils in cannabis.
By saying meth is bad, it implies that all that we are saying about it in terms of it being harmful to have in our communities.
I’m wondering just how original the $445K ad was.
Just saw a “We’re On It” ad from the American Petroleum Institute:
https://www.youtube.com/user/energy
Strange …………
Think of the drug treatment counselors that the State of South Dakota could have hired instead of this strangeness. And they call Democrats wasteful.
” drug treatment counselors”
May as well have flushed the money down the crapper. We need to address this problem bigly. We don’t need more case workers, we need anti-meth to be a part of the culture so the problem doesn’t start in the first place.
No problem, no business plan for psychology/case worker businesses.
Sounds good to me.
Best shirt I’ve seen yet:
Black, SD silhouette in white, “Meth, let’s treat it.”
James Corden from the CBS Late Late Show wondered why South Dakota’s meth ad slogan has a trademark. Then he added some of his own slogan ideas like for Colorado: “Cocaine. We Love Fresh Powder.” And for Idaho: “LSD. The Potatoes Are Chasing Me!”. Also for Florida: “Drugs. We’re On All Of Them.”
Debbo – and yet, here you are. Talking about the campaign. Spreading the word. For Noem.
The only thing this wasted $1.4 million fiasco did was to bring South Dakota several million dollars worth of negative publicity. We are now known even more strongly as a bit player in the country, as a state that desperately tries to be as cool as the populous, sophisticated states by being quirky, but just ends up being weird. The odd uncle at Thanksgiving who tries to be funny but just embarrasses everyone with his lack of grace and class. We are viewed even more strongly as backwater rubes, rather than as citizens of a modern world. In addition, every chance for Noem to open her mouth shows the world that we were dumb enough to elect a person to the position of Governor who is nothing more than a hideously reactionary old man in a youngish-woman’s body. She is the epitome of “All drugs are bad! Girls who ‘get themselves pregnant’ are bad!! Everything must be framed in religious terms because I’m a religious nut myself!!!” thinking. If a state Chamber of Commerce group had for some reason gone rogue and decided to drive forward-thinking away from wanting to come here, they couldn’t have come up with a better ad campaign, or a better governor to help keep intelligent people out. At, say, $50K/year for anti-meth-cartel cops or for ex-addict counselors, we could have instead hired 20 new counselors to help treat the addiction and 8 new DCI people. But, no, we got Dumb and Dumber, Noem and Laurie Gill. And, as Dana P. pointed out, I’m sure there’s some sort of cheap shoddy corruption going on in the selection of the Minnesota ad firm that came up with this idiocy. It’s the South Dakota Republican way, after all.
Another downside to the policy of inflicting criminal punishment on and “shaming” people who choose to consume some substance is that it makes it more difficult for someone that has been abusing that substance, such as meth, to seek and obtain treatment.
It is unrealistic to assume meth is the primary or only cause of all the problems suffered by meth users. Indeed, people respond to despair or hopelessness by seeking solace in a drug that temporarily makes them feel better. Circumstance leading to despair and hopelessness are causes that we shouldn’t ignore.
And to the extent abusing meth can become a factor in deteriorating health, malnutrition (which is a cause of dental decay as noted in the link I posted earlier) and mental health issues, the fear of criminal prosecution and public “shaming” are clearly impediments to seeking help.
And we do know that the sole causes of the “problem” of incarceration for meth involvement are criminal laws prohibiting involvement with meth. Without such laws that particular problem would disappear.
SD is the nation’s strange uncle.
Thune is pushing 5G.
Meth is rampant.
The Masons pee all over everybody.
There are spooks behind every leaf of poison ivy.
We have the rally in Sturgis.
That’s why we need the campaign .. PLEASE HELP US.
Mercury went direct today. i.e. The planet was in retrograde when this communication was issued. Astrology predicts, when Mercury is in retrograde you should avoid communication that might be misinterpreted, at all costs. Kristi Noem’s communication on this issue is a prime example.
` To jump to another DFP post, today. Cory wrote (paraphrased) SD has plenty of fiscal wiggle room to spend $1.4 million of Federal money on this anti-meth slogan without a formal oversight process for federal grants.
Seems like your state is playing free and easy with tax dollars sent to you from all across America. How about some oversight, at least? Hmmm?
Noem’s meth campaign didn’t say anything about spreading the word
You know, Frank, I’d have liked the Ad Fed to take a bigger shot at the content of the ad campaign itself. But they did criticize it. Read back the middle paragraphs:
Check those bolded lines. Ad Fed is saying the campaign we got isn’t appropriately serious. Ad Fed is saying Broadhead and Noem are taking the issue lightly. Ad Fed is saying the campaign is not delivering a message that resonates.
Not that I’m one to sympathize with people who make their point obliquely, but remember, Ad Fed consists of a lot of South Dakotans who are used to having to sit up and bark for contracts from Pierre. They aren’t used to having to publicly say that the Governor is a doofus. That they spoke up at all against this decision by our beauty-queen regime is remarkable and worth discussing.
Old Spec, that’s funny: I heard Gill’s interview on NPR over my cereal, and I didn’t hear gushing; I heard the more typical amateur effort of an underqualified state flunky trying to wrap her mouth around the talking points she’s been handed by the state’s marketing firm without knowing how to make herself sound like she truly owns the words.
Or maybe I just heard the awkwardness of a comic trying to win back an audience by explaining a joke that just bombed.
Medicaid expansion—yes, Debbo (and Drey!), if we were really all on this problem, we’d be taking all the practical steps we could to solve it, and one of those practical steps is expanding Medicaid.
Consider opioid addiction: states that have expanded Medicaid see more people getting prescriptions of a drug that helps addicts get off opioids. South Dakota has a notably lower rate of opioid OD deaths than the national average, but the Medicaid study lead author says, “It’s unlikely that the differences in opioid use disorder rates account for this enormous variation in prescription rates.”
Expanding Medicaid appears to reduce deaths from substance abuse.
This policy paper from Oklahoma says expanding Medicaid may be the best way to fight that rural state’s meth problem:
If Governor Kristi Noem were really On Meth™, she’d sign an executive order expanding Medicaid right now.
Buckobear! Good eye!
There are no new ideas under the sun.
…and since Buckobear brought it up, it is appropriate to note that, like Noem’s tumble-down-the-stairs campaign, the American Petroleum Institute’s “We’re On It” campaign is misinformation about Big Oil’s real actions on the problem they claim to be solving.
And her campaign isn’t spreading the word, Roger, not any word about the actual problem or about what we’re going to do to solve it. One could argue the campaign weakens Noem’s ability to push solutions, because now she as a messenger is viewed as less credible, less persuasive, and less judicious in her use of whatever additional tax dollars the Legislature might appropriate for additional public policy responses to the meth crisis.
In one swoop, young Governor Noem has gotten more goats, nationwide, and especially libbie goats, than any other single person. Well played, Ms. Noem. Well played.
#goatswegotem
Grudznick’s heuristic approach to politics is endemic in SD. He has three, maybe four things he thinks are true and any new idea or problem is solved, without deep thought, by applying one of these false platitude filters.
– Pot is bad.
– People are poor because they don’t work hard enough.
– Cops need to break Indian’s heads.
– Non South Dakotans are trying to control what you think and how you live your life.
Grudz is what we call a “shallow thinker”. No new thought has crossed his brain in so long he’s become a Cigar Store tribute to the simple mind.
Most ad concepts are just a reworking of another ad, and Kristi Noem must’ve really liked this concept when they pitched it to her. Gotta admit, the ad agency executed the concept pretty well. However, the message is ineffective because it is two radically conflicting meanings, and it begs the viewer to combat others’ meth use while failing to give any inclination of how one might do so.
The effect of this ad has been: a textbook demonstration of the gross and comical incompetence of people like average South Dakotans.
The thing is, like Gov. Daugaard’s “South Dakota: It’s Better Than Mars” ad, if we actually want our Governor(s) to ever do a ‘great job‘ with ad messages like this, then we need to elect one from one our bigger population centers – Sioux Falls or Rapid City (which still doesn’t guarantee anything, but it helps).
I think the current Mayor of Rapid City would be a fantastic Governor of South Dakota, but I also kinda enjoy (shamefully) the entertainment that our Loony Tune state leaders provide for the country. Wait, who am I kidding; I effing hate it, but it’s good that we don’t hide who we are – waaay out here – where not too many ever even find interest in taking a peek.
apostrophe is in the wrong place, Mr. Lansing. Bob and I are sticklers for that stuff.
1) Meth is some ways the worst of all drugs because one almost is addicted after the first use.
2). Because it is the cheapest, it often is the choice who are most disadvantages and most likely to have no functional support structures. Thus intervention and treatment is often most delayed and the long term life consequences are worst.
3). Because of the above, mitigating meth’s impact depends almost exclusively in preventing that first ingestion which requires approaches different than other addictions which may emphasize treatment and rehab.
4) The lifetime direct societal costs (jail, treatment, family benefits) of the typical meth users are several multiples of other addictions. And the direct costs don’t include indirect costs like reduced lifetime earnings, tax revenue, support of family, etc.
I wish this were considered serious enough where the first impulse was not to politicize it. https://talbottcampus.com/addiction-rehab-programs/prescription-drug-abuse/stimulants/crystal-meth-addiction-statistics/
Sentences begin with capital letters, grudznick. Shallow mind, man.
The most deadly and most lethal drug in South Dakota is the SDGOP.
Nailed it, Roger.
Rep. Erin Healy has written a first rate FB post about SD’s meth addiction problem that far surpasses NoMa’am’s $1 million+ waste of resources. It’s worth reading and probably available elsewhere too for those who don’t have FB access.
is.gd/G9sLnr
Roger Cornelius – “spreading the word”
It’s an awareness campaign. In marketing, this is the same thing. Most campaigns like this start off with “brand awareness”.
As I awoke this morning I was thinking about the campaign’s genius. This state’s underbelly is a bunch of overzealous, overactive meth heads that have no empathy .. complete sociopaths that threaten and carry out violence against people that oppose them.
This campaign is very important and I am glad Governor Noem stepped-up and blew the whistle on our gargantuan meth problem (like the Third Reich, South Dakota’s deep state has a really bad meth problem).
Cory – “Ad Fed is saying the campaign is not delivering a message that resonates”
Ad Fed is probably on meth.
:D
Meanwhile, the Fed Fed keeps it as a schedule 2 drug, enabling the Meth Fed to keep on producing and selling in Pharma labs.
Cory – “without knowing how to make herself sound like she truly owns the words”
Noem should give me the job in representing how outstanding this mega viral campaign has been.
It’s not just SD that’s on meth .. ever been to Mesa, AZ?
Cory – “one of those practical steps is expanding Medicaid”
Doctors and hospitals don’t respect Medicaid patients. They don’t do the same medical due diligence in my experience.
Furthermore, treatment for Meth doesn’t work if the supply is plentiful. Meth, unlike Cannabis, should be taken off the streets and made completely unavailable. It’s too addictive to allow to remain a schedule II.
grudznick – “Governor Noem has gotten more goats, nationwide, and especially libbie goats, than any other single person”
grudznick gets it.
The only word that comes close to digging at the heart of this thing for me is genius.
Is the left wing’s blitzkrieg zu ende?
Peace. Love. Cannabis. Deer meat.
Porter Lansing – “Pot is bad”
grudznick – we should get together and roll up a doobie when it’s legal and talk this out.
Adam – “However, the message is ineffective because it is two radically conflicting meanings”
The way I view it is like a pretty hitchhiker.
Show a little leg first, then you ask for a ride.
We’re on Meth is Noem’s leg, proverbially.
I assume the message is forthcoming and being promulgated through thousands of back channels and over dinner tables, literally.
The naysayers, in my view, are like Napoleon Dynamite saying “gaaaaw! don’t tell ’em I’m on meth!”
Troy – “requires approaches different than other addictions which may emphasize treatment and rehab.”
Very well said. I appreciated reading what you wrote.
+1
Broadhead said in their bid that they would conduct six two-hour focus group sessions to “gauge their reactions to the creative and messaging as well as uncover any engagement opportunities not currently in the plan, but worthy of exploration….”
Maybe they should have asked these Iowa eighth-graders:
“I thought that this video was trying to tell us not to do drugs like South Dakota”
That’s exactly the message.
South Dakota doesn’t have any moral high ground when it comes to meth use.
“They didn’t say anywhere in the actual campaign that they were trying to get people off of meth”
And yet, everybody is getting the message. BRAVO.
“Personally, I like how they put humor into this. I think it is nice because not only do adults understand it but so do us kids. I think it’s a great way to make kids understand how bad meth is because we find it funny.”
Nice!
“People won’t take this seriously”
It’s not meant to be taken seriously .. it’s meant to get the discussion into the limelight and over-with quickly, because while everybody knows meth is bad, the notion can use some reinforcement from a campaign that doesn’t try to claim moral superiority.
Viral meth campaigns that help the country have a difficult conversation .. SD, we’re on it (leadership, that is)!
Interesting write-up in the Pioneer basically echoing my comments regarding this issue:
https://www.bhpioneer.com/local_news/local-legislators-react-to-meth-campaign/article_9161f2e6-0d53-11ea-863c-9f077c085d8d.html
If it works it works .. I appreciated the comment about the importance of follow-up. I think I write something similar in here somewhere.
One typo – if you don’t see it, they fixed it (I sent the reference). “Brunner”, isn’t it?
It appears that Iowa 8th graders are smarter than SD’s governor. Next time NoMa’am wants to blow $ from the citizens of SD, maybe she should find a local 8th grade class to advise her first.
“It appears that Iowa 8th graders are smarter than SD’s governor”
Coming from someone who says they require proof of beliefs.
This just in .. Governor of SD is dumber than 8th graders .. very believable.
No, “I’m on it” is NOT meant to say “don’t do drugs like SDans do, that’s dumb”. The message is a play on words (not a good one, or an effective one, but an attempt in that direction anyway). It’s not meant to say these good SDans are on drugs at all, it’s meant to say “I’m on it” as if we’re doing something about a major problem. That’s where the expression comes from. But evidently no one sees it that way, so chalk up one more failure for urbanite ad agencies who think everyone talks just like they do. Or if they don’t, they should.
Robin, we don’t issue points for trying. If you spend $1.4 million on advertising, you’d better get advertising that is good and effective. If we have to spend all week saying what the ads were meant to say, the ads have failed.
Thanks, John, for the link to the Black Hills Pioneer. Interesting to see that not one Republican legislator quotes says the slogan is good. Rep. Brunner calls it “horrible.” Sen. Ewing says the slogan “doesn’t sit well” with him. Rep. Johns says he’d rather have seen the $1.4M spent on school programs and treatment. Rep. Chaffee does some controtions for Noem but ultimately says the slogan will cast SD in a bad light if there’s no real follow-through.
Noem appointee Rep. Hammock excuses the slogan as an attention-getter (remember: I can get all sorts of attention during Session by dropping my pants in the gallery and mooning the Speaker, but does that make my effort praiseworthy?) and claims, “In spite of the dust-up about the catch line, the splash has brought immediate attention to our very serious problem.” But he undermines his own excuse “We knew during the first week of the 2019 session that the meth epidemic was in the sights for a very strong interdiction effort.” So we already had attention on the actual problem during the first week of Session, well before the ad campaign. The slogan has only brought attention to our Governor’s ineptness.
Cory – so, just to be clear, you’re praising and agreeing with SD legislators, now? :D
Cory – in terms of psychological processes, having the reader reason it out for themselves is more in keeping with “vividity” and “engagement”.
The audience is more engaged and the content is more vivid, making the campaign more effective.
The one gotcha that I see was mentioned in the article .. follow up will be required, and the contract should be given to the same firm .. heck, I bet they already have the campaign defined and ready to go with all the material we’ve been talking about on our own, and it’ll all be reinforced and money well spent if meth use abates.
Of course part of follow up, too, could be a reduction in work week hours coupled with pay increases.
The need to overwork to keep up with bills is a driver of meth use.
John, to be clear, I’m pointing out that not even the members of Noem’s own conservative caucus can put a good spin on her failed slogan.
The audience is engaged in mockery of Noem’s bad decision-making, not an active discussion of more effective drug interventions.
The next contract should be given to people who actually do something about drug addiction, not advertisers.
I don’t see much discussion here of why they use it cause we know you can’t stop it as long as there is demand. People make their own at home and use it intergenerationally. Parents will blow the smoke into their kid’s mouths so the whole family can experience it. In many areas it’s become part of their culture. Long hours at tedious jobs, euphoria, there are many motivating factors, but bottom line they find it acceptable. This person’s undercover work exposed grandparents making it for the whole family like pancakes sounds crazy but if kids grow up with it an ad campaign won’t make a difference. This writer shares what she learned.
https://newrepublic.com/article/116025/meth-adderall-construction-workers
Cory – in measuring the outcome, the campaigns goal was awareness and differentiation from traditional “this is your brain” campaigns.
It’s hard to imagine a campaign being more successful than this one.
Mr. H, did not Mr. Johns vote Aye to spend the $1.4M on this actual Meth druggie campaign? I, for one, would expect Mr. Johns to remember that he specifically voted Aye to do this. He has some answering to do to the legislatures, no doubt. My recollection is that Mr. Johns voted to spend over a million dollars on an advertising hijinx against Meth. Now he wants to recant? That is just insaner than most. Mr. Johns is going to have to explain.
Mr. H, when grudznick is wrong he admits it. Mr. Johns did not vote Aye on that money bill. He skipped the vote. And Mr. Johns, when you skip a vote, you abdicate your right to complain.
Next time, sir, show up and vote. 58 to 1 to pass, and you pulled a “Stace” and didn’t even vote. You took a walk, sir. So next time, vote, then complain.
Mr. H, do your research. This is why grudznick always bests you in the debates.
Rural area advertising has some important messages to us all. See if you can get what this sign is all about. https://crooksandliars.com/2019/11/anti-trump-sign-day
BOOM!!!
That sign. 😲😲😲😲😲
“what this sign is all about”
This person that would post this is pathological.
And you call ME crazy?
Why blame the post? After all, it just holds up the sign.