Liberal Talk Radio

I saw a new anti-drug ad this weekend that just blew my mind. It’s called “Pete’s Couch,” and you can watch it here or on YouTube. Here’s the transcript:

(Scene opens with a guy sitting on the couch talking directly to the camera)

I smoked weed and nobody died.
I didn’t get into a car accident, I didn’t O.D. on heroin the next day, nothing happened.

(Shot widens to show the guy with two friends sitting on the couch)

We sat on Pete’s couch for 11 hours.
Now what’s going to happen on Pete’s couch? Nothing.

(Shot now shows the guys on the couch in the middle of the woods with some mountain bikers riding by. Then to a basketball court. Then an ice rink.)

You have a better shot of dying out there in the real world, driving hard to the rim, ice skating with a girl. No, you wanna keep yourself alive, go over to Pete’s and sit on his couch til you’re 86.

Safest thing in the world.

(Shot now shows the guys on the couch outside a movie theater. The guy talking gets up from the couch and walks into the theater)

Me? I’ll take my chances out there. Call me reckless.

(AbovetheInfluence.com logo appears)

At first, I thought it was a PRO-drug ad! (“I smoked weed and nobody died.”) It’s brilliant because it (finally) concedes that marijuana isn’t dangerous. In doing so, it addresses the disconnect between apocalyptic anti-drug campaigns and the reality of smoking pot on, say, Pete’s couch. That disconnect is what turns kids off to these messages in the first place. Well done. We’ve come a long way from the incredible naivete of “Just say no.”