On a random day after school, Max got together with his sister and her friends and they came up with this spoof of the anti-drug “Truth” ad campaign.
When I asked Max what inspired him to create this spoof with his sister, Ana and her friends Taylor, Sara, Connor, Maddy, and Lena and whether he was trying to convey a particular message, he said it “was for fun. Not really to make a better message. The whole spoof ad campaign thing came about when my little sister and her friends stuffed their stomachs to look pregnant. From that, we made a spoof abstinence campaign.”
It seems Max has started a spoof ad agency. With insightful headlines like, “When you do drugs, you get swept away like white trash” and “When you do drugs, you get beat up'” Max’s Truth campaign humorously amplifies the seriousness of the real Truth campaign.
Even though he spoofed the campaign, Max does like the real Truth campaign. However, some others are not so good. “I really do like the truth ads. I think that they’re much better than any other anti-drug campaign, actually, because they I guess are truthful. They’re shocking. There are some anti-drug ads that I think are a bit stupid, for instance, ones that say ‘tobacco is whacko if you’re a teen,’ because for one thing, it says ‘wacko’, which I think is just people trying to ‘communicate’ with kids by using childish lingo, and also, it says ‘if you’re a teen.’ If it says ‘if you’re a teen,’ it sort of implies that it’s bad only for teens, but one reason that younger people do drugs in the first place is to act more grown up. I suppose I chose the ‘truth’ campaign’s style for these particular spoofs because I thought that their design fit the look of the images.”
One ad (pictured) asks, “Can you spot the junkie?” and has the “junkies” in a sort of Dating Game line up sitting on stools with boxes to check of which “contestant” is the actual junkie.
See all the ads here.
