Setting Teens Straight
Anti-drug Website Delivers Wholesome Message With an Edge
David Ehrlich, President, The Track Group, Inc.
http://www.justthinktwice.com
An American teenager is bombarded with misleading information about drugs, from a pop culture that makes users seem glamorous to the outcry that marijuana is really just beneficial medicine. Teens might hear from their peers that they will be able to resist addiction or even that some drugs are safe and natural.
Through their work in high schools, members of DEA’s Demand Reduction Programs realized that many teens were having trouble separating fact from fiction. Teens were swayed by emotional arguments in favor of drugs and did not understand the full extent of the damage drugs do to society. In early 2005, they set out to set the record straight.
“There weren’t a lot of Web sites for teens that gave some of the legal consequences of drugs,” said Demand Reduction Programs Chief Catherine Harnett. “Drug use and trafficking have implications for the environment, animal cruelty, drug-endangered children, things that kids might not think of. We wanted to show it wasn’t victimless.”
A hard sell
Harnett and her team already knew their audience well, and they knew their message would have to be edgy and entertaining to be heard at all. They started by researching other drug sites — both pro- and anti-drug — “and tried to find a niche that was different.”
They also drew inspiration from other sources.
“If you’re doing a kid site, you go onto MTV, the commercial sites that sell to kids, and look at what they do,” Harnett said. “There are lessons you can learn from what’s attractive and what’s navigable.”
After the groundwork had been laid, the site was tested with teen focus groups to gauge its interest and reading level. They learned that as far as the teens were concerned, they could not be too explicit.
“They don’t shy away from images that might turn off adults,” Harnett said. “The grosser the better.”
On Aug. 31, 2005, Harnett’s team launched a dark, funny and dangerous-looking site that immediately attracted attention. The announcement of the launch was covered by The Washington Post, and a picture from the site appeared on Page 2. Soon after, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales sent letters to the governors of every state drawing their attention to the resource.
“Just Think Twice” is filled with frank language and many tugs at teens’ heartstrings. Under the heading “Sick Puppy,” they can learn about how traffickers abuse animals by using them as drug swallowers. The “It Can’t Happen to Me” section is a blunt look at what can happen to teens who use drugs — from being kicked off of sports teams to dying of an overdose. “Got Meth?” is a parody of a typical teen magazine — with a look at the heady infatuation and devastating “breakup” that inevitably results from a love affair with methamphetamines.
While Harnett’s team has never tried to hide the site’s DEA affiliation, they didn’t try to tout it either — and chose to make it a more familiar .com rather than a .gov.
The “cool” factor
Looking back at the development of the site, Harnett said the artwork was key to its success. She said she would advise anyone trying to reach teens to “find good graphics people who you can work with easily and who share the same vision. That was very important to us.”
Tracking of the site shows that it sees its highest use on weekday afternoons, which suggests to Harnett that teachers are pointing their students there. Her office hopes to take that trend a step further and is in the process of developing an educational curriculum based on the site.
Her office also continues to track the site’s use and plans to update it as needed.
“We’re proud that when people see it, they don’t associate it as a government site,” she said. “It’s considered a bit cooler than your average government site.”
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