Anti-drug ad implicates games' influence
by Kyle Orland 
{ Jun 26th 2007 at 12:59PM }
Injury. Obesity. Becoming a murderer. These are just some of the risks we as gamers knowingly take on in deference to the hobby we love. But now there's a new risk. Apparently, playing video games can also turn us into drug addicts.A new TV ad from the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign features a mom talking to a virtual convict in a fictional crime simulator. The ne'er-do-well warns mom that her son and his friends think he's cool because all he does is "deal drugs ... smoke weed and cause trouble." Sounds like fun to us, but the virtual thug, in a moment of supreme self-awareness and social consciousness, tells mom that "in real life, drugs are nothing but trouble." How does the mom thank him for this information? By turning off the game, ignoring his pleas for a reprieve-granting reset.
Like most anti-drug ads, the main message here is that parents should talk to their kids about drugs, which is something we can all get behind. But really, do the people behind this ad seriously think that kids are going to start experimenting with drugs just because they saw a video game character do it? We know kids can be easily suggestible, but give them some credit. They're not idiots. Check out the video after the break.
[Via FileFront]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris New @ Jun 26th 2007 11:45AM
"easily suggestible?"
you mean 'easily influenced' or 'very impressionable?'
that phrasing doesn't make sense.
Grim Santo @ Jun 26th 2007 12:03PM
Don't know, I think the Ad gets the point across pretty well. Games can have a influence and a kid. If more parents were more hands on with there kids, this world would be a better place.
Greg @ Jun 26th 2007 12:08PM
Children are suggestible, sure.
Then why don't parents JUST NOT BUY the games that do all the suggesting?
If a kid can't tell the difference between video game drugs and real life drugs, they aren't ready for games (or books, or TV shows, or movies, or music, or magazines, or comics...) that include drugs. End of story.
Greg @ Jun 26th 2007 12:09PM
Also, does anybody else think the "PAYING ATTENTION" slide looks very MGS-esque?
Dave @ Jun 26th 2007 12:16PM
"Sounds like fun to us, but the virtual thug, in a moment of supreme self-awareness and social consciousness, tells mom that "in real life, drugs are nothing but trouble." How does the mom thank him for this information? By turning off the game, ignoring his pleas for a reprieve-granting reset."
- Made me laugh
jcmschwa @ Jun 26th 2007 12:18PM
"TIME PARADOX"
jcmschwa @ Jun 26th 2007 12:20PM
"TIME PARADOX"
Rare Hare @ Jun 26th 2007 12:26PM
@Chris New:
sug·gest·i·ble –adjective 1. subject to or easily influenced by suggestion.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/suggestible
Thank you for playing, though. Better luck next time. =]
BACK ON TOPIC:
I really don't think the add is a direct attack on the gaming industry. If anything, it's just recognition of a common form of media that a huge number of kids interact with every day (even if it is showing games in a pretty negative light).
Like it or not, video games DO influence kids to a certain extent. Same with TV, movies, and magazines. To deny the possibility of a kid trying a drug such as marijuana or alcohol after seeing his or her favorite in-game character using it is a little ignorant. You may not realize it, but that kind of stuff happens.
Hell, I've got a story of my own to share. A went over to a friends house a couple years ago for his birthday (I think he was turning 17). His family was all out of town so it was just me and him. I bought us a pizza, and we sat down to play (what else?) Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. Needless to say, after a while we got bored and wanted to go do something outside. My suggestion: "Let's go steal some bikes."
We did, out of someone's yard, and after riding them around for a few hours we brought them back. We had a great time. No harm done. But I can't help but wonder if I would have had that idea had we not been playing GTA: SA. My guess is "probably not".
So, long story short, games can in fact influence kids. I suppose I'm living proof :p.
Spitkicker @ Jun 26th 2007 1:09PM
Stop demonizing marijuana. These bastards in the DEA and just our govt in general make way too much off the war on drugs to ever legalize it. Plus the money recieved for every convict (even bullshit like dime bag distribution) locked up just feeds the prison industrial complex. Why not educate people on it insteaad of stigmatizing it?
I am all for drug control, but it is the parents responsibility first and foremost.
vidGuy @ Jun 26th 2007 1:15PM
At least the kid isn't the one having a conversation with a character on TV.
mo @ Jun 26th 2007 1:17PM
YEAH SERIOUSLY GUYS!!! the world is exactly how we want it right now, dont let video-games ruin it....
videogames make us druggys
music makes us violent
TV makes us stupid
the scary internet makes pedophiles attack us
books lead to witchcraft
no matter what you are doing there will be a group of lonely single parents against it
and for the record, drug use didnt climb to the high its at now in america until all those school drug lessons, TV commercials, and dancing singing anti-drug cartoons came in to play, ask a businessman about product awareness, he will explain it to you
Joe @ Jun 26th 2007 1:20PM
"But really, do the people behind this ad seriously think that kids are going to start experimenting with drugs just because they saw a video game character do it?"
Yes. People are influenced by what they see. It's one of the early steps, but spending hours playing as a character that has been designed to be marketable and cool has an impact, especially on younger kids. You're simply wrong if you think it has no impact whatsoever. I'm not saying that playing the game alone will make kids imitate the character. However, once you've done something "virtually", it's just a bit easier to do the same thing in reality--easpecially if you've done it virtually 100 times. Years of research on psychology and brainwashing are indisputable about this. As a gamer, a parent, and a husband to a psychology professor, it's a concern to me. I think gamers look foolish when they insist that it can have no impact whatsoever.
While I'm venting :) saying that parents should just not buy it for their kids is a fair argument. But you also need to keep in mind that while I won't buy these games for my 10 and 12 year old kids, my neighbor isn't always as responsbile about this as I am. That's rather frustrating ... and a more companies push out games that are more and more violent and that have less and less social conscience about the violence... I wonder what kind of society we are headed toward.
Just some thoughts.
Savok @ Jun 26th 2007 1:18PM
Obviously these people have never actually BOUGHT a game. Prices as they are, I'm not sure how people could afford drugs.
Kian777 @ Jun 26th 2007 1:23PM
I love video games and I always will. The last thing I want is for a developers creativity to be squashed by a bunch of laws.
But I do think video games can influence kids. Video games are very realistic these days. They can teach kids about drugs and how to use drugs. If I was 9 - 13 again and was playing a game where I was dealing and using drugs I'd be seriously interested in trying it especially since so many at my school are doing it. And if it was offered to me you bet i'd jump on the oppertunity.
Same goes for sex but I don't think I need a video games influence for that.
On the other hand I think murder is completely different and I do not think a child is going to bring a gun to school and shoot up his classmates because of a late game of GOW.
In conclusion I think the rating system is good. But games are not just for kids anymore. I'm 30 years old and I'm a kid in the eyes of alot of these old politicians trying to ban games. I want to play manhunt, I want to live the life of a drug dealer, and I don't want video games censored at all. But go ahead and put a rating on it for kids.
FermitTheKrog @ Jun 26th 2007 1:24PM
They need to tighten up the graphics on level 3.
Lijik @ Jun 26th 2007 1:25PM
I don't care how stupid this ad is, it's way better than Above the Influence's "If you smoke pot, an alien will come down to earth and steal your girlfriend" campaign.
Tim @ Jun 26th 2007 6:43PM
I, personally like the ad. I mean, if the point I'm getting across is clear. It's basically saying like, explain to your kids that just because the people in the game look like they're having fun, it doesn't mean drugs are. They'll fuck you up. Just tell them that and make sure they know. Also, I agree with the fact that parent's should just watch what their kids play. And I wanna make this clear so I don't seem like the dickheads I hate...I love video games, and GTA and R* are my favorite series and publisher, so you can imagine I hate the controversy.
Magarnacle @ Jun 26th 2007 1:40PM
I first smoked a joint when I was about 13. Back then there were no video games that featured drug dealers or characters who got high. I guess Guybrush Threepwood was hitting the four footer off camera but other than that games were pretty clean. Drugs and games go hand in hand that is true, however to think to think that games make kids do drugs is a little far fetched. My parents spent a lifetime telling me that drugs were bad. Only they were not there telling me that the first time I got high from a friend.
People will always be quick to blame video games as they provide an easy scapegoat. The best we can do is be honest about drugs and hopefully steer kids to make a few of the right choices along with all of the wrong ones. Now I am going to sell my computer for meth so I won't be able to keep posting but video games did not make me do it.
Matt B @ Jun 26th 2007 1:49PM
What if your parents do drugs?
BIG Reub @ Jun 26th 2007 1:55PM
I don't think this ad blames video games. I think this could have just have easily been any character from the media that is a trouble maker. It would compare it to those V-Chip adds with the Sopranos-esq characters. For some people the media can influence their choices. I'm not saying that any one media outlet is responsible for all social ills but to deny that no one has ever been influenced by anything that saw on TV, in a movie or even in a game is rather silly.
CrashJak II @ Jun 26th 2007 1:56PM
Um, she just turned off the tv, he's still just going to kill the cops and get out of jail, before going on another drug-induced rampage.
Michael K. @ Jun 26th 2007 2:02PM
I am not saying this ad is justified or that videogames make kids do dumb stuff (I've been playing videogames for as long as I can remember and I turned out ok), but game developers like Rockstar give the videogame industry a bad name. They just purposely cross the line to cause controversy which helps sells their crappy games, but this is also makes videogames a scapegoat when kids do anything bad. Rockstar sucks
The Destroyer @ Jun 26th 2007 2:03PM
Video games do not directly make kids do drugs, kill hookers, steal bikes, and any manner of illegal acts. I'm 16 and I've been playing violent video games ever since I can remember.
Oh but I must be one of these ADD rattled kids who kills puppies and watches things burn in real life right? No. I have good parents who did teach me right from wrong, and that drugs were bad for various reasons. I don't believe pot is a bad drug for various reasons but I don't smoke it.
Now it's understandable that certain kids with less than stellar upbringings would be easily influenced to this kind of stuff. But assuming the video games are a catalyst and going after them is ignoring the bigger issue, which is that these kids have pretty fucking bad lives to begin with.
So in conclusion don't blame video games or try to make them out to be more than what they are, kids have been playing with water guns for years; doesn't make them killers. Video games shouldn't be censored, stupid people shouldn't be allowed to have sex.
Jake @ Jun 26th 2007 2:05PM
lol at all of us. Trying to speak rationally about how our government should handle social issues like drugs and violence. Do you think the government cares if people use drugs and commit crimes? They WANT us to.
Hell, if no one commited crimes, how would they justify having a massive police force and incarceration industry available to keep us in line every time we get pissed at the rich raping us and start to riot or protest. The only thing they don't want us doing is smoking cigarettes.
Seriously, in nations where marijuanna use is legal and people truly don't give a damn about it, the heavy usage rates are lower than here, especially amongst youths. It is often just looked at as lame in those societies, where here is is dangerous, mysterious, and just plain cool to many.
A commercial like this is a joke. The types of kids that listen to that crap are the types that wouldn't have done it in the first place, or would have only experimented with it. These commercials aren't going to make our rebelious youths suddenly less rebelious or less risk-taking.
And this whole drug "war" is a joke. The decisions that are made are made to increase profits for those that have the most to gain in different situations. Hell, we used to sell the drugs that we confiscated to other nations to soften their societies for regime change.
Every year in America, the richest 0.1% of Americans posses a larger percentage of the nations wealth than the year before. Every year, our nation becomes less competitive in world industry and more hated by other nations. Basically, our future and the health of our society is second priority to the pocketbooks of a relatively select group of individuals that don't even need more money. But, like an addict, they are obsessed with obtaining more in any way possible.
That is how every nation on earth is until they have their next big revolution, regime change, military defeat, etc. You just have to live your life and accept the fact that rich greedy a-holes from ALL countries are doing their best to ruin the world. ;)
mo @ Jun 26th 2007 2:13PM
@13
i disagree, its obv that mainstream media has an amazing effect on youth but i think videogames has little to no part in it, what makes those kind of games appealing in the first place is MTV and that whole culture thats constantly being used in movies TV and music of the inner city tuff guy thing, video games didnt start that, there just following suit
and secondly, i also disagree with the idea that virtually doing something makes you more prone to do so, mostly because in videogames your not playing as you, your char has his own story-line and goals and attitude, its so impersonal, i personally have never felt i was master chief, or mario, i didnt leave those games ready to shoot up aliens, he was him and i was me, he was on some awesome adventure, and i was on my couch, it isnt about coming out of that "world" or even going into it, im very aware the entire time im on a couch, holding a controller, watching a TV,
im relaxing with a soda while playing videogames im not jumping off the walls from the thrill of a head shot im sittting on the couch relaxing, its hard to get pumped-up playing any game unless your with your friends competing,in fact the only games i have ever gotten an adrenaline rush over are mariokart and super smash brothers with 4 friends, thats some intense shit, a head shot in unreal, i dont even flinch
but i remember trebling in fear when a guy bashed his head open at the skatepark, and i mean OPEN, blood gushed every where and he was screaming in pain, and im usually fine with blood but i just sat there dumbfounded shaking and staring at all the people around him running full speed to his aid and ten people at once on there cell phone calling an ambulance. i can see the difference very clearly, so can every other person there at the skate park which im sure were gamers, no one has gotten desensitized to anything, theres real blood, and theres fake blood, theres mortal combat fights, and theres real fights, its VERY black and white
on a scale of mass media videogames rate at the bottom for me, if it were my kids and it was between ANY game( manhunt AO rated thrill killer included), or hostel, it would be ANY game
sheppy @ Jun 26th 2007 2:15PM
"To deny the possibility of a kid trying a drug such as marijuana or alcohol after seeing his or her favorite in-game character using it is a little ignorant. You may not realize it, but that kind of stuff happens."
For most people trying drugs, there is a hell of a lot more going wrong with their life than a fucking video game. Trust me on this one. Grow the hell up.
TxdoHawk @ Jun 26th 2007 2:18PM
Recent anti-drug ads make me laugh. Don't smoke pot kids, or dogs and aliens won't want to talk to you!
(Yes, I smoke pot. Oh, and did I mention I'm on the verge of graduating college? Of course, I won't do anything with my degree. After all, pot smokers can't help but make dumb life-ruining decisions, so says the government. And the government is always right, right sheeple? That's right. Baaaaaaaaaa...)
Savok @ Jun 26th 2007 2:51PM
Don't forget we all played Super Mario Bros as children, eating magic mushrooms and opium poppies while jumping on turtles then taking amazing journeys through sewer pipes.
James @ Jun 26th 2007 2:52PM
I too don't believe this is an attack at video games. This is much like the GTA Coke commercial. It's just a way of grabbing attention of the young mind. They are trying to relate in a world where using words like "cool" and "dude" no longer work.
Kuefler @ Jun 26th 2007 3:25PM
http://gameinfluence.com
What?
liquefied @ Jun 26th 2007 3:49PM
I played GTA3 and now I'm hooked on black tar heroin. The facts speak for themselves.
Evan @ Jun 26th 2007 5:10PM
How many video games on the market do you sell drugs and use them?
I can't think of any personally. That doesn't mean there aren't any, but didn't they just make up a fake game with a nonexistent plot in today's video games?
That seems pretty much completely wrong to me.
The Destroyer @ Jun 26th 2007 10:36PM
@Evan
NARC is the only one I can remember recently, and even in that game there were consequences for doing so. Plus it sucked.
Also to reiterate, don't assume the games are the main problem. Doing so is an ignorant act and is also overlooking the major issues in the persons life.
Rating games for kids is important but I agree they should expand the system like the MPAA. What you have to understand though is that kids CAN and SHOULD be allowed to play these games. Oh wow I just said that. Listen, there is no reason a rational level headed 13 year old kid with a decent life should not be allowed to play GTA or listen to AC/DC or watch Kill Bill. It's hard for most people to understand because we tend to think of the youth as innocent or simple and a walk through any middle school playground would tell you otherwise.
It's impossible to try and shield a kid from these but rather a parent should try to educate their child on the matter and prepare them for the real world. The mysterious will seem much less enticing when it's already been explained. I might be more apt to try pot if I hadn't been accurately told what it's like and that it really isn't all that great.
Ben @ Jun 26th 2007 8:48PM
I think that the Mom is high because shes TALKING TO A TV!
War is good, Drugs are bad. Listen to the government.