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The PSA was once a staple of American television. I loved them. You could be watching a football game, or an episode of Punky Brewster, and then BAM… the powers that be and the power of celebrity would send you a reminder that you shouldn’t use drugs. I remember all too well sitting in my comfortable suburban living room and putting down my imaginary crack pipe because Pee Wee Herman warned me about the dangers. Thank goodness, I listened.
Wait… Pee Wee Herman did anti-drug PSAs? Lol. Yes he did!
You might wonder if having Pee Wee Herman do an anti-crack PSA might undermine the seriousness of the message and you’d be right to wonder. This makes absolutely no sense… at least not until one watches the PSA. (He really sells you on it.) But if the ad were not so good, you might almost conclude that not taking this epidemic seriously – while pretending to do so – was the entire point! Surely not. If it were, then you might also have to conclude that the War on Drugs was an excuse for the police to bother the country’s most vulnerable people.
Well, I ask you, if someone failed to listen to that PSA above, what else could have been done?
Interesting
You can get far enough away from events to revisit them with fresh eyes and start asking questions. I’ve always wondered why the U.S. had a “war on drugs” complete with PSAs like this one that played on TV all the time, but never made any serious effort to actually prevent the drugs from getting into the country in the first place.
Policy aside, though, having Pee Wee Herman do an anti-drug PSA is pretty bizarre.
Yeah, for my retirement gig, I became a certified pharmacy technician and have thought of so many questions as well. Looking through the retail lens of drugs as commerce (vs. my profession of RN being a patient advocate). Not always the same.