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Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA) is a nonprofit organization that helps parents prevent, intervene in and find treatment for drug and alcohol use by their children. Bringing together renowned scientists, parent experts, and communications professionals, the Partnership translates current research on teen behavior, addiction, and treatment into easy to understand resources at drugfree.org. For parents who need help talking with their kids about drugs, alcohol and other risky behaviors, TimeToTalk.org offers tips and tools promoting parent/child communication. Time To Act is a step-by-step guide for parents who believe or are sure that their teens are drinking or using drugs and need to know what to do.

In the mid-1980s, a small group of advertising professionals discussed how to best use their talents to address the nation’s drug problem. They thought, if advertising could be used to sell products, couldn’t it be used to unsell them as well?

This core team formed the Media-Advertising Partnership for a Drug-Free America, a concept for a non-profit organization born from the American Association Advertising Agencies (AAAA). The idea was to harness the power of the media, coupled with compelling research-based consumer advertising, to turn the tide on drug abuse trends, specifically among teens and youth. At the time, the nation was in the throes of the crack cocaine epidemic and the Partnership focused its efforts to help reduce demand for those drugs through public service advertising (PSA) campaigns.

The organization first entered the wider public consciousness in 1987, with its This is Your Brain on Drugs broadcast and print public service advertisements (PSAs), which used the analogy that if a person's brain is an egg, then using drugs would be like frying it.

Throughout its history, the Partnership has won numerous advertising and efficacy awards for its PSA campaigns, which over the past two decades, have targeted other illegal drugs like heroin, methamphetamine, Ecstasy and other club drugs. But the current drug landscape has changed drastically as kids have become more savvy than generations before them. Through technology, American youth literally have the world at their fingertips, making it even more important for parents to breakthrough as the prominent influence in their kids’ lives.

Over the past several years, the Partnership has evolved and expanded its mission to include underage drinking and has focused on parents, not only in preventing teen substance abuse, but in getting help for a child who is struggling with drugs or drinking, dedicated the lion’s share of efforts in developing science-based, online resources. The Partnership promotes these to parents and caregivers, utilizing long-standing relationships with advertising agencies, media, government and business.

Criticism

PDFA was the subject of criticism when it was revealed by Cynthia Cotts of the Village Voice that their federal tax returns showed that they had received several million dollars worth of funding from major pharmaceutical, tobacco and alcohol corporations including American Brands (Jim Beam whiskey), Philip Morris (Marlboro and Virginia Slims cigarettes, Miller beer), Anheuser Busch (Budweiser, Michelob, Busch beer), R.J. Reynolds (Camel, Salem, Winston cigarettes), as well as pharmaceutical firms Bristol Meyers-Squibb, Merck & Company and Procter & Gamble. From 1997 it has discontinued any fiscal association with tobacco and alcohol suppliers, although it still is in receipt of donations from pharmaceutical producers^[1].

Satire

Some of the campaigns run by the PDFA have been either satirized or referred to in popular media.

In the comedy film Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (2004), John Cho and Kal Penn's characters are watching the Harmless PSA while intoxicated from marijuana. The advertisement in question features two teen boys smoking marijuana; one of them handles a gun and then fatally shoots himself, saying, "I'm so high, nothing can hurt me!".

On a segment of The Daily Show, Ed Helms showed a PDFA advertisement in which a stoned teenager takes out a gun and, not realizing that it is loaded, shoots his friend. At the end of the PSA Helms says, "Obviously this is a very effective commercial... for gun control. Come on parents, what were you thinking, leaving a loaded gun around teenagers? Are you high or something?"

The South Park episode "My Future Self 'n' Me" reflects on some campaigns run by the PDFA.

The Family Guy episode "Boys Do Cry" featured the character Meg lying on the couch deflated in reference to a PDFA commercial.

Notes

^ All actors in PDFA television and radio spots appear without fee, courtesy of an agreement with the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Sources

^ Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting

External links

Official PDFA website
aef.com, showcases select PDFA case histories
[1] Autonomous Media Network

[1] Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting

[1]

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 ==Criticism==
-PDFA was the subject of criticism when it was revealed by [[Cynthia Cotts]] of the [[Village Voice]] that their federal tax returns showed that they had received several million dollars worth of funding from major [[Pharmaceutical company|pharmaceutical]], [[Tobacco industry|tobacco]] and [[Brewery|alcohol]] corporations including [[American Brands]] ([[Jim Beam]] whiskey), [[Philip Morris USA|Philip Morris]] ([[Marlboro (cigarette)|Marlboro]] and [[Virginia Slims]] cigarettes, [[Miller beer]]), [[Anheuser Busch]] ([[Budweiser]], [[Michelob]], [[Busch beer]]), [[R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company|R.J. Reynolds]] ([[Camel (cigarette)|Camel]], [[Salem (cigarette)|Salem]], [[Winston (cigarette)|Winston]] cigarettes), as well as pharmaceutical firms [[Bristol Meyers-Squibb]], [[Merck & Company]] and [[Procter & Gamble]]. From 1997 it has discontinued any fiscal association with tobacco and alcohol suppliers, although it still is in receipt of donations from pharmaceutical producers.
+PDFA was the subject of criticism when it was revealed by [[Cynthia Cotts]] of the [[Village Voice]] that their federal tax returns showed that they had received several million dollars worth of funding from major [[Pharmaceutical company|pharmaceutical]], [[Tobacco industry|tobacco]] and [[Brewery|alcohol]] corporations including [[American Brands]] ([[Jim Beam]] whiskey), [[Philip Morris USA|Philip Morris]] ([[Marlboro (cigarette)|Marlboro]] and [[Virginia Slims]] cigarettes, [[Miller beer]]), [[Anheuser Busch]] ([[Budweiser]], [[Michelob]], [[Busch beer]]), [[R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company|R.J. Reynolds]] ([[Camel (cigarette)|Camel]], [[Salem (cigarette)|Salem]], [[Winston (cigarette)|Winston]] cigarettes), as well as pharmaceutical firms [[Bristol Meyers-Squibb]], [[Merck & Company]] and [[Procter & Gamble]]. From 1997 it has discontinued any fiscal association with tobacco and alcohol suppliers, although it still is in receipt of donations from pharmaceutical producers<ref>[http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1390 Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting]</ref>.
 ==Satire==