South Dakota anti-meth ad campaign widely mocked, but governor says it's doing its job by getting people's attention - Entrepreneur Generations

Part of the ad campaign

South Dakota is getting a lot of attention for its new ad campaign seeking to raise awareness of the state's meth addiction problem—though, perhaps, not in the way state officials wanted. The ad campaign has been widely mocked for making it sound as if all South Dakotans use meth, Michael Brice-Saddler reports for The Washington Post.

Gov. Kristi L. Noem unveiled the "Meth. We're On It." awareness initiative on Monday, which will include a TV ad, billboards, posters, and a website; an accompanying news release highlighted the fact that meth use among South Dakota teens is double the national average, Liza Kaczke reports for the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls.

"But Bill Pearce, assistant dean at the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, said any sincere messaging by the governor was lost by an ad campaign that embodies 'poor strategy and poor execution,'" Brice-Saddler reports. "I can’t imagine this is what they intended to do; any good marketer would look at this and say: 'Yeah, let’s not do that.' . . . I’m sure South Dakota residents don’t like being laughed at. That’s what’s happening right now."

The state's Department of Social Services paid Minneapolis ad agency Broadhead Co. nearly $450,000 so far to create and execute the campaign. The contract, effective until May 31, allows for up to $1.4 million in payment. Social media immediately blew up with posts and tweets mocking the ads, but Noem declared the campaign a success because she believed it's fulfilling its mission of raising awareness, Kaczke reports.

Love the campaign or hate it, but one thing's for sure: a lot more people are talking about South Dakota's meth problem this week than last week.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2XqaPii South Dakota anti-meth ad campaign widely mocked, but governor says it's doing its job by getting people's attention - Entrepreneur Generations

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