Above The Influence

Lately on television I have been noticing a lot of public service announcements that are centered around drug use. The goal of a public service announcement (PSA), is to raise awareness or change behaviors and attitudes on a social issue. The PSA that you can see below is an ad created by Above The Influence, which is an organization created to bring attention to drug use and educate the public on the harm that can come from doing drugs. It says, "Kill yourself. Or, don't smoke meth." Below that, it goes on to list some of the many side effects commonly seen among drug users, and in particular, meth users.

Some of the other ads and commercials that have been done by Above The Influence are extremely graphic and disturbing, so much so that it can make the public feel almost uncomfortable. However, this PSA does a good job of illustrating how drugs, specifically meth, can do serious harm to your body and essentially destroy the life you've built. Below, I've posted another example of an anti-drug PSA created by Above The Influence. 

This ad is clearly a little less intense than the previous one, but it has the same general message for the public. In the outer ring that surrounds the arrow, some of the text reads "stress", "confusion", "seek help", etc. It's generally relaying to the public that these are all possible outcome affiliated with drug use. 

Above The Influence has tons of these ads as their whole campaign revolves around reducing the amount of drug use within our society, and around the world. By relaying this information to the public through the use of advertisements and commercials, they establish public relations. Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics. 

Above The Influence is giving the public useful information about the harmful effects drugs have on you physically, mentally and emotionally. By doing this, the public is building a respectful relationship with Above The Influence and is able to gain more useful knowledge about drug use for themselves, friends or family. 

So, the question is, how do we become more aware of the benefits public service announcements can provide?

Be more aware of them in general. PSA's are seriously everywhere. After I started thinking about them more in depth, the more I started noticing them. Drugs are a very serious issue, and are way more common than a lot of people think they'd be. Many people are naive of the harm that drugs cause, but PSA's help educate the public about these kinds of issues. It's also important that when you see a PSA, to look into it, and educate yourself about the issue at front. Do some research on why the PSA was created and how many people see the PSA daily and potentially how many lives these public service announcements change or save. Public service announcements have always seemed sort of dramatic to me, but lately, I noticed how beneficial and informational they can really be.