17175: Raising A Glass To Recovering Drunks.

September is National Recovery Month. Don’t expect to see performative philanthropic campaigns saluting recovering Don Drapers everywhere.

16843: VapingIsCringe.com Is Unintentionally Cringeworthy.

This Mississippi State Department of Health anti-vaping campaign from Mad Genius is explained as follows:

 

Think back to life as a teenager. None of us wanted to be like our parents, much less caught doing something they did. This anti-vaping campaign captures that sentiment, spotlighting older adults who are unhealthy in appearance and using a vape, to show how uncool vaping actually is. To drive the point home, these adults are dressed in contemporary clothing that teens wear, and using Gen Alpha brain rot to express their excitement. The cooler they try to look, the more cringeworthy vaping becomes. We’re striking a tone so sardonic and awkward it’ll actively discourage teens from vaping.

 

Wow. Depicting parents trying to be cool in awkward, cringeworthy style—brought to you by culturally clueless creatives from a White advertising agency trying to be cool in awkward, cringeworthy style.

 

It’s enough to inspire anyone to inhale, inject, ingest, smoke, and snort anything available.

15228: Fucked-Up Canucks Welcome On Board…

This campaign from Quebec encourages drunks and druggies to take buses and cabs, respectively. Gee, how nice for commuters and cabbies.

14787: In Peru, Special Occasions Call For Cocaine…?

These advertisements from Peru look like a campaign for Peruvian blow.

14574: Is DHL Serving As A Mule For Drug Cartels?

Is this campaign related to Spain returning pre-Colombian artifacts seized from drug cartels? If so, it feels kinda disrespectful to send the stuff back via DHL. Hell, it might have been better to ask Leo Sharp to handle the transport.

14154: Questioning Big Pharma.

The New York Times and other news sources have reported how Alkermes is promoting Vivitrol as a treatment for the opioid-dependence epidemic. But it looks like regulators won’t let the drug maker advertise specific details, leading to blind messages such as the billboard depicted above. Or maybe the campaign was created by addicts…?

12742: Let’s Not Go Places.

Toyota Global Head of Communications Julie Hamp resigned after being arrested for allegedly importing drugs into Japan. Hey, Hamp, you should be concentrating on importing cars versus controlled substances. And what exotic drugs inspired the creative teams responsible for the Total Toyota bullshit campaign that included depicting a former slave plantation?

Toyota’s Communications Chief Resigns Following Arrest

Police Said Julie Hamp Allegedly Imported a Controlled Drug into Japan

Toyota Motor Corp. said Julie Hamp, its first female managing officer, resigned the position after her arrest last month for allegedly importing drugs into Japan.

Toyota accepted the resignation “after considering the concerns and inconvenience that recent events have caused our stakeholders,” the Toyota City, Japan-based company said on its website. Hamp, 55, had been named the global head of communications for the world’s largest carmaker in April.

Hamp’s resignation comes after President Akio Toyoda called a press conference one day after her June 18 arrest to express confidence that she hadn’t intentionally broken Japanese law. The company had pointed to Hamp’s appointment as evidence that it was diversifying its executive ranks, which is predominantly comprised of Japanese men.

Tokyo metropolitan police arrested Hamp on suspicion she had imported the pain medication oxycodone, police spokesmen have said, asking not to be named in accordance with its policy. She joined the company in June 2012 from PepsiCo Inc., where she was a senior vice president, and worked previously for General Motors Corp.

Oxycodone is designated as a narcotic in Japan and users need advance permission from the health and welfare ministry before bringing it into the country, according to the Narcotics Control Department.

--Bloomberg News--

10371: Snickers Satisfies Meth Heads.

The Huffington Post reported a man was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport for trying to smuggle methamphetamine disguised as Snickers bars. Authorities were probably tipped when the guy was not acting like himself after eating a Snickers.

Meth Candy: Snickers Bars Filled With Methamphetamine Get Man Arrested At LAX

LOS ANGELES -- A California man faces federal drug charges for allegedly trying to smuggle more than 4 pounds of methamphetamine to Japan in what looked like dozens of Snickers bars.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Monday that 34-year-old Rogelio Mauricio Harris of Long Beach was arrested last week at Los Angeles International Airport as he prepared to board a flight to Japan.

Harris was charged in Los Angeles with drug possession and faces at least 10 years in prison if convicted.

Federal agents conducting routine baggage inspections found 45 full-sized Snickers bars inside Harris’ luggage. Each bar was coated in a chocolate-like substance to make it look like a candy bar, but tests revealed the so-called candy contained methamphetamine.

Authorities estimate the 4 pounds of meth is worth about $250,000.

9909: Unbelievably Dumb Drug Ads.

If you really believe that drug smugglers will be influenced by these shitty ads, you’ll believe anything.


From Ads of the World.

9197: Authentic Mexican Stereotypes.

Guessing the typical Mexican drug lord would not find the food at this place to be very authentic.

9049: Sex, Drugs & No Rock ‘N Roll.

A-HD: The Pre-Hooker Drug.


Ride the New Wave of HGH Release*
Mood Enhancement*
Increased Muscle Mass and Body Fat Reduction*
Enhanced Deep, Restful Sleep*

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Really?!


Get The Rise You’ve Been Looking For.
And if the drug doesn’t work, try staring at this ad.


Um, it looks like she’s gonna take a dump into the bottle.

7394: Humming Along With Drug Ballads.

From USA TODAY…

Mexico’s drug ballads hit sour note with government

By Chris Hawley, USA TODAY

MEXICO CITY MEXICO CITY — Experts worry the music romanticizes leaders of cartels, desensitizes fans and undermines the fight against crime.

When the song The Farm hit Mexico’s airwaves this fall, it quickly became a sensation in a country increasingly frustrated by a 3-year-old war against drug cartels.

In seven stanzas stuffed with symbolism, the song tells the story of a fierce dog, perhaps representing drug traffickers, that causes no trouble until a fox — the Mexican president — provokes it, unleashing a wave of bloodshed. The music ends with a plea to tie up the dog.

The song by Los Tigres del Norte, along with “drug ballads” by other musicians and the investigation of a Grammy-winning singer for possible drug ties, has stirred a debate over the role of popular music as Mexico, helped by some $830 million so far in U.S. aid, tries to break the cartels. About 13,000 people have died in drug-related violence since the crackdown began in 2006.

Drug ballads, known as narcocorridos in Spanish, have long been a part of Mexico’s norteño music, which is driven by accordions and a polka-like beat. As the body count climbs, though, some experts worry that such hits are undermining the government’s efforts.

“It’s possible that this kind of music desensitizes Mexicans to what’s going on,” says Rubén Tinajero Medina, a musicologist at the University of Chihuahua.

Decoding the message
The controversy over the music echoes similar debates over “cop killer” rap music in the United States during the height of the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s.

Greg Etter, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Central Missouri who has studied narcocorridos, likens the most explicit of them to neo-Nazi death metal and says they could fuel a backlash against authorities.

“Music is a motivator,” Etter says. “Depending on how it is received, it can be very dangerous.”

In Mexican dance halls and record shops, smuggler music is hot: Sixteen Drug Ballads, by singer Larry Hernández, is one of the best-selling albums of the year. Another new album, El Tigrillo Palma, recounts the exploits of fugitive kingpin Joaquin “Chapo” Guzmán in songs such as The Power of Chapo. El Compa Chuy is nominated for a Grammy for an album featuring smuggler ballads, El Niño de Oro.

“It’s a way of describing what our people are going through, the suffering of the Mexican people,” says Jorge Hernández, lead singer of Los Tigres del Norte.

Singing about drug traffickers also carries risks. Since 2006, at least 10 norteño musicians have been killed in apparent hits by drug gangs, and on Dec. 11, police detained three bands, including Grammy-winning singer Ramón Ayala, during a shootout at a Christmas party attended by alleged members of the Beltrán Leyva gang.

Ayala was released on Wednesday but remains under investigation for possible organized crime offenses, the office of Mexico’s attorney general says.

Arturo Beltrán Leyva, the leader of the drug gang, was killed Dec. 17 in a shootout with authorities.

In the past year, no song has created more controversy than The Farm (La Granja in Spanish). The song is inspired by Animal Farm, George Orwell’s 1945 allegorical book assailing communism.

The song is written to make it onto radio stations that normally would not air narcocorridos, says Juan Carlos Ramírez-Pimienta, a Mexican music expert at San Diego State University.

Listeners pore over the lyrics and the song’s video, looking for meaning in the animal characters and decoding them on fan websites.

Many seem easy to interpret: The fox is former president Vicente Fox, who began purging the federal police of corrupt elements and extradited dozens of drug kingpins to the United States during his 2000-06 term.

The crash of a “sparrow hawk” refers to the mysterious crash of a Learjet carrying Mexico’s Interior minister on Nov. 4, 2008.

Open to interpretation: Does the dog represent drug traffickers or the Mexican police? And is the finale urging Mexicans to unite against drug traffickers or let them be? The band won’t say.

“Everybody can interpret it as they want,” Hernández says. “We’re just storytellers.”

In defense of free speech
In October, the organizers of the Lunas Entertainment Awards asked the band not to play the song during the awards show at the government-owned National Auditorium. Los Tigres boycotted the show in protest. At a news conference, they accused the Mexican Interior Ministry of pressuring the Lunas organizers and some radio stations to keep the song off the air.

The Interior Ministry issued a written statement denying the accusation.

The Farm reflects a recent change in the themes of narcocorridos, Ramírez-Pimienta says.

Before the latest crackdown on cartels, such songs focused on cars, women, clothes and other luxuries enjoyed by Mexican drug traffickers — “party corridos,” Ramírez-Pimienta calls them.

“Now we’re seeing a return to the ‘epic’ corrido, with more emphasis on the battles involved,” Ramírez-Pimienta says.

Other songs romanticize newly emerging cartel leaders. A new Los Tigres del Norte song, Queen of Queens, likens alleged trafficker Sandra Ávila Beltrán to Cleopatra and the Queen of Sheba.

“Two beauties of the ages, but nothing compared to Sandra,” the song says.

Fans deny that music is undermining the fight against crime.

“People take it too seriously,” says Elizabeth Monroig, a member of the Boss of Bosses, a Los Tigres del Norte fan club in suburban Mexico City.

“Yes, these groups talk about things that are going on in the country, but they also sing about love and other things. It’s just music.”

Hawley is Latin America correspondent for USA TODAY and The Arizona Republic. Contributing: Dan Nowicki of The Arizona Republic.