Anti-Stigma Campaign Pulled by London Bus Company
Release's surprising anti-stigma campaign, involving London's double-decker buses being decked out with the message "Nice People Take Drugs," has been taken down by the nice people at the bus company. Despite there being not a single complaint about the ads, they were concerned about how the ads may have been interpreted.
Executive Director of Release, Sebastian Saville said, “We ran this campaign because we were frustrated by the lack of serious engagement with this important policy issue, but are astounded that debate is even more stifled than we could ever have imagined. This slogan is not controversial nor is it inaccurate and its removal demonstrates the extent to which we are so far removed from having a mature discussion about drugs. If we cannot have that, what chance do we have of addressing the enormous failure of drug policy, which continues to wreak havoc among our communities?”
While I applaud the good intentions of Release, I am not surprised at this outcome. The message may be well-meaning, but unfortunately, some people don't get it. In the meantime, we need educational approaches that will inform rather than provoke negative reactions.
Release have another chance to run an alternative slogan on the buses during July, so let's hope they can come up with something that gets the message across without being misinterpreted.
What do you think?
Any comments or suggestions?
Here’s my personal opinion: social stigma can be a good thing. At least it used to be, in a more traditional culture. People would behave in more acceptable ways, to avoid stigma. Modern society seems to say “let’s just accept everything and anything.” When we lower standards and the culture no longer enforces healthy standards, then anything goes, doesn’t it? Families suffer and come apart. The individual becomes the ultimate independent self. Isolation becomes the norm. So – it’s okay for addictions to flourish? Is that what modern culture wants? That said, will addicts seek help, if no stigma exists? What do we really want, in the long term?
Nice people take drugs doesn’t sound like an anti-stigma campaign, it sounds like a pro-drug use campaign.
I agree, this doesn’t sound like an anti-stigma campaign it sounds like taking drugs is okay. I understand that nice people have addictions (all kinds of addictions) but studies have shown that children who drink underage have parents who have conversations in their home about drinking. Children view this as approval. Of course they’re mature adults socially drinking but the end result is underage drinking. I think this slogan would inadvertently have the same result on our children.
Nice people do take drugs, and that slogan needs to be said to save lives and whole families. Addictions often start innocently enough from a legally prescribed prescription. The denial system of an addict blinds many people to their own destructive behavior, until the problem has escalated out of control.
Comparing oneself to a street junky who uses needles and robs people to support his habit, that is an addict, not a working person who provides for a family. A drug addict is not a person who can afford the occasional nose candy, or takes medicine prescribed by a doctor. The rational overlooks the fact it has become necessary to get several doctors to write the prescriptions, because the need for more has driven a “good person” to spend much of their day seeking doctors and faining illnesses.
It was the typical uneducated bureaucrat, who made an uninformed decision which has caused more harm then good. If people really want to help themselves and others, then education and awareness are indispensable tools in combating drug addiction. The sign: “Nice people Take Drugs” would be entirely appropriate on the wall of a grade school classroom, as well as a train station. People need to be a little less opinionated, and a little more caring.
Stigma and anti-stigma campaigns promote emotional reactions. Ideally, both the addicted individual and the public would dispassionately, and hence effectively, to this mortal threat.