Above the Influence doesn't do as great of a job as it should.

So the other day I was watching TV. I'm pretty sure all of my blog posts start out with this, or that I was eating. Obviously all I do is eat and watch TV, I mean clearly I am the epitome of childhood obesity. Anyway, I was watching TV when I saw this commercial.

If you didn't watch it, a girl goes to her friend's (maybe boyfriend's OOH LA LA) house and the events of their day is chronicled. They do very cutesy things together in this small town, and then the Above the Influence symbol appears. If you didn't already know, http://www.abovetheinfluence.com/ is a site with the goal in mind to prevent teenage drinking and drug use. It ran for a few months, but went largely unnoticed by me because it is just such a dull advertisement. The color scheme remains drab and muted throughout the entire commercial and the song has no dynamics to it. It completely went past me the first couple times I saw it. The target audience is teenagers just like me, and I, someone who actually pays attention to commercials, let it slide by me completely unphased. This is bad for the intended goal. I wasn't able to pay attention enough to understand the message that you can have an alright time without drinking and drug use. The commercial doesn't even do that right, because this time they are having isn't blown with excitement. I decided to go ahead and check the website out.

I'm not endorsing teenage substance abuse, but most amusing part of the website was the "comeback" section, which gives confused teenagers a source to consult on what to say when asked to participate in such activities. Some of the answers kind of made me laugh because they're so blunt and awkward.


"Lets smoke." "Nah, my Mom has better senses than a drug sniffing dog."

"Hey I snagged my younger brother's Ritalin, want some?" "No thats bad."

"I hate studying, lets just copy off someone." "No way man the teacher would catch us."


I couldn't help but chuckle at seeing someone simply saying "No thats bad" with no implied emotion and then walking away. It just appears so awkward and funny. Some of the suggested excuses would probably be very rehearsed sounding and actually used, making the poor kid feel more awkward than just saying no in his own way. For a site trying to prevent substance use, it doesn't do as great of a job as it should.