Hunting for stoners in a sober campaign

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Client: Above the Influence

"It is a beautiful day. And while most people are out and about enjoying friends, activities and life in general...the creature that we seek is sedentary, uninspired and remarkably unmotivated. My associate and I are in search of the lair of this magnificent specimen: the mature stoner."

This is the introduction for the hilarious and informative campaign for Above the Influence. Run by the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, "Stoners in the Mist" is meant to poke fun at the nearly comatose marijuana consumers by exploring "scientifically" their habitat and tendencies.

There are several video clips that allow you to watch Professor Barnard Puck and his assistant Baldric, (whom I sure came up with these cunning plans) as they track and research stoners in their natural environment.

Once you watch the series of clips, you can read facts on how marijuana affects its consumers in a variety of different fields including social life, health and fitness. There is also a quiz you can take as well as fact sheets that explain exactly what marijuana is, as well as its biological effects and resulting behavior traits.

(click to view)The campaign does a great job of keeping the audience amused as well as informed about the benefits of remaining above the influence, which makes it no surprise that it has been voted No. 1 among Above the Influence's site viewers.
-- Krisserin Canary, associate editor, iMedia Communications

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I can't remember the last time I had such mixed feelings about a piece of creative. On one side, the Above the Influence campaign has done a spectacular job of creating an informative, immersive, fun interactive experience. On the other hand, I believe they have failed miserably at actually achieving their goal. In fact, my informal field polling uncovered a unanimous response: "This would be awesome to play with when you're high." Clearly not the message they were aiming for.

Focusing on the creative execution, I think they did a decent job with the presentation. The site is easy to navigate and rolling over "locations" on the map kicks off a preview video of the content to be found inside. The site also includes all the usual goodies like wallpapers, IM icons and an embeddable widget to put on your own site or blog.

Unfortunately, the depth of content is lacking. Frankly, it's not very informative. Is there anyone who doesn't know that pot can shorten your attention span? I don't think the cited medical studies add much credibility to it. In fact, I don't believe that teens faced with making the decision to smoke pot or not are looking to published medical research to help them. So why feature them so prominently? There are more citations than actual facts.

(click to view)The videos aren't high quality either. Most of the content is very pixilated, and takes a while to load. Also, I just can't get past the gut instinct that they seem to be promoting smoking pot more than discouraging it. Playing to stereotypes doesn't work here. The site could just as easily serve as a promo for movies like "How High" or "Half Baked."

For me, the AboveTheInfluence.com site is just a burnout.
-- Corey Kronengold, director of communications, Tremor Media

When the stoners stop laughing at this site, they just might just find some scary information convincing them to shelve the bong. But most of the stoners portrayed in this over-the-top exaggeration of stoners are SO stoned that the likelihood of them being able to actually read is pretty slim. And perhaps that's part of the goal here as well, to portray the marijuana user as a disengaged couch dweller incapable of conversation and deserving of bemused observation; a creature more suited to a zoo. 

Other than the poor choice of actors to play the scientists, the execution of this website for Above the Influence is well done. I say poor choice because I don't believe the stereotyped old British guy Barnard Puck -- complete with pith helmet -- is going to resonate too well with the targeted group, which appears to be high school students and perhaps high school stoners. Other than that minor nitpick, the concept of observing stoners in their natural habitat and conducting tests on them is really quite funny. The videos are to-the-point, fairly humorous and well written. The Flash environment in which they reside is well-themed, and you'll find all the typical things a site of this nature is almost required to have these days: wallpapers, buddy icons for AIM, a game and even banners for the kids' MySpace pages. 

I don't want to be cynical in thinking that this site is going to be frequented by a bunch of kids gagging back hits of pot, and maybe that's who Above the Influence wants to attract. But once they get past the hilarity of recognizing themselves in the vignettes, they'll hopefully get deeper into the many facts about the damaging effects of marijuana that are sprinkled throughout the site.  
-- Dave Wilkie operates Green Hammock and is the blogger behind Where's My Jetpack