Grant Horton
February 25, 2016
Lauren Herbruck
English 1110.03
Legalization
In an ad released by the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids it opens to 2 girls sitting in a
family room one of them on a chair and the other melted into the couch. The girl on the chair
remains nameless, she speaks about her friend Sarah who is melted into the couch. She talks
about how ever since Sarah began smoking marijuana she is lifeless. Sarah no longer wants to do
anything but sit there and stare off into space it seems. The room is colorless only browns and
grays are highlighted, because of this the room comes across with a depressing feel. It is not a
room in which I would like to be sitting and Sarah is certainly not a friend which I would wish to
have as one of my own. Sarah’s friend explains that ever since Sarah started smoking pot she has
become lazy and boring. Throughout this ad the campaign is trying to make it clear to the viewer
that if we smoke weed we will without a doubt become a Sarah. This ad creates a feeling that the
viewer is being intimidated into making a choice, there seems to only be 2 options, the right
choice (not using marijuana) and the wrong choice of completely throwing your life away and
instead choosing marijuana. Fear is being used to help make the choice for the reader, it doesn’t
make sense to choose anything other than what is being thrown in your face. The video ends and
we see Sarah slumped into the couch, she is clearly not a person which we aspire to be.
When looking at most any country in the world it is often acknowledged that fear is a
tactic often employed to achieve certain things. Whether you are an adult who finishes a report
for work by the due date in fear of losing your job, or a student studying for a test because the
fear of failure is constantly looming, even an athlete pushing themselves to their limits because
of the fear of losing a race or a game. It doesn’t matter who you are fear is used excessively.
However is fear the most effective way to push someone in the right direction in any situation?
We see these fear tactics that are used in this commercial also being used in American
drug education with our ever famous drug abuse resistance education program better known as
D.A.R.E. DARE is a program filled with fearful teachings, I can remember sitting in a classroom
in sixth grade watching videos showing how negatively my life would be impacted if I touched a
sip of alcohol let alone smoked a joint. God forbid, I may just sink into my couch and lose all
motivation to ever achieve anything ever again. Dennis Rosenbaum a Professor of Criminal
Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago stated in a 2007 journal that, “Across more than 30
studies, the collective evidence from evaluations with reasonably good scientific validity
