Do You Remember?

A few years ago the Ad Council ran TV commercials showing two eggs frying in a skillet. At the end a voice cam on and said, "This is your brain on drugs."

These ads were extremely successful in getting the attention of the public and many parents thought they were great. Unfortunately they failed miserably to persuade kids to abstain from drugs.

"Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is..." This was one of the most memorable ads in the history of Television. Almost everyone alive at that time can still remember seeing it and can sing the little ditty that accompanied it. Unfortunately, it was a very expensive failure because almost nobody was persuaded to buy Alka Seltzer as a result of seeing it.

Because of research about drug, alcohol and suicide prevention we know a lot about the things that do not work with adults or kids. Unfortunately, sober adults, especially preachers, seem to love the things that fail. They can remember and repeat the slogans, statistics and warnings about "sex, drugs and rock music" but almost no one tempted by these devilish problems is deterred.

The only people who like hard sell activities of preaching prevention are the young people who have already decided not to indulge in them. Preaching is almost always designed to scare the kids who are already scared. They are already obedient, compliant and easily disciplined so the sermons work with them.

Kids that are rebellious, anti authoritarian and drawn to alcohol, drugs and sex will be motivated even more to engage in those activities.

I am often asked how to "Motivate the unmotivated". Be very careful. We often come up with slogans like, "This is your brain on drugs" and they tend to motivate the unmotivated to be LESS motivated to do what we want and MORE motivated to rebel.

Kids who spend time with adults are less likely to do bad things.
Kids who have a single adult LISTEN to them are mush less likely to be victimized. (Get my book on listening.)
Kids who are involved in positive activities with positive peers are less likely to get into trouble.
Develop good boundaries, family rules about curfews, eating together, automobile usage, mutual respect, etc.

Take them to church regularly.