U.S. Plays on Terror Fear in New Ad Blitz
By Sue Pleming
Reuters
WASHINGTON (Feb. 4) - Tapping into public fears over terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks on America, the Bush administration kicked off a tough anti-drug media blitz this week linking illegal drug use with acts of terror.
Full-page ads ran in major U.S. newspapers on Monday with the message "drug money helps support terror," following up on hard-hitting television ads that aired during Sunday's Super Bowl, the biggest advertising day of the year in America.
However, one critic called them a "cynical" waste of money.
In the past, government anti-drug ads have largely focused on the impact of drugs on the people using them but in light the Sept. 11 attacks, tactics have changed.
"We are trying to capitalize on the desire people have to make a contribution in the war against terrorism and the desire to be more responsible themselves," said John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
"If people want to know what they can do, there is a pretty clear message here, as the president said, when you stop using drugs you join America's battle on terrorism," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.
In one of the newspaper ads, a youth says, "Last weekend I washed my car, hung out with a few friends and helped murder a family in Colombia," referring to drug-related killings in Colombia. The underlying message suggests buying drugs helps fund terrorism.
The State Department estimates about half of the 28 groups identified in 2001 as "terrorist" groups used drug trafficking as their main source of funding, and Walters said his office felt it was important to point out that link.
"I thought it would be irresponsible not to provide this information as part of our prevention methods," said Walters, stressing his office was not saying terror groups got all their money from drugs.
Walters said the response so far had been positive, but one activist group argued strongly against the latest ads, calling them a "cheap shot."
"Blaming nonviolent Americans for terrorism is equal to blaming beer drinkers and alcohol users from the schoolyard to the White House in the 1920s for Al Capone's relationship," said Matthew Briggs, assistant director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which is fighting for new drug laws.
Briggs said it was disturbing the government spent so much money blaming Americans for terrorism when more than half of Americans in need of drug treatment did not have access to it.
"It's a politically motivated, cynical expenditure of money," he said of the latest ads.
Responding to the criticism, Walters said his office was not blaming Americans for terrorism, but explaining how drug money could find its way into the hands of terrorists.
The latest ads are part of an annual $180 million media campaign to reduce drug use among youth in America and will include television, radio and newspaper spots as well as information online.
"The response so far has been outstanding. But the bottom line is we want to drive down drug use and so we won't know for some time ... whether we have been successful," said Walters.
Reuters 16:10 02-04-02 |
