Abstract
The 1987 Frying pan / “This is Your Brain on Drugs” PSA was a milestone event in the reach of PSA’s on American television. It was an early practical illustration of the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM). A few years later the ad became a series of meme’s but still carried weight as a metaphor of drug abuse. A decade later it was followed by an equally compelling “Brain on Heroine” PSA which was an illustration of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). In 2016 the ad series was produced again as a “How to Talk to Teens about Drugs” PSA. That was presented as an EPPM High Threat / High Efficacy campaign. And then, in 2017 the actress who starred in the “Brain on Heroine” PSA used her notoriety to present a YouTube mini-documentary regarding the fallacies of the War on Drugs in the US and its contribution to mass incarcerations, structural racism and poverty in the US.
Presenters
Ken WestermannStudent, Master of Communication, University of Missouri St louis, Missouri, United States
