Radio Ad 1- SLOMing

TRANSCRIPT:

Radio Public Service Announcement
Slom

Teen girl:	I've been SLOMing, but it's not my thing. (somewhat sheepish, laughing) SLOMing means “Sticking Leeches On Myself”
Interviewer:	Leeches?
Teen girl:	During lunch you stick it here and there, and they leave their marks and do their things or whatever.
Guy one:	(to his friend) Hey dude, go on get that one, he looks hungry.
Guy two:	It kinda feels like half your blood has been drained out.
Guy one:	Yeah, 'cause it has.
Teen male:	My friend said he had some pretty good leeches. It wasn't as fun as people said it was, you know?
VO:	What could you be convinced to do? abovetheinfluence.com Sponsored by the ONDCP and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.
SFX - MUSICAL SFX AS VO FINISHES

Listen to the SLOMing ad

his is a PSA by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America that came out in 2006. The purpose of the ad is to show how teens can be influenced to do nearly anything, even if it's stupid -ie, do drugs- if they hear its the cool thing to do. It's easy to see that the target audience is teens from around 12-18. The ad attempts to speak to them by showing them how stupid following the crowd can be just to be cool. However, to me, it seems like the ad is more of a voice against peer pressure rather than just against drugs.

My biggest problem with the message they are trying to portray is that this notion of peer pressure can be applied to almost any type of stupid thing teens are talked into- from drugs and alcohol to things like shoplifting, going to parties, skipping class, or breaking curfew. The message is so ambiguous, and therefore the ad fails because one of the most essential elements of the communication model- the message- cannot be interpreted in the way it was intended. While yes, I can understand where they were trying to go with this advertisement, it ultimately fails. In a teenager's life, its more important to be well liked by the popular crowd, even if they're doing something stupid, because as long as it's not stupid to their peers they think they're doing something right.