South Dakota has a new campaign to keep its residents off methamphetamine, but it may not be delivering the message the state government hoped.
CNN reports that South Dakota’s new unofficial state motto appears to be: “Meth. I’m on it.”
“South Dakota launched a new campaign Monday to battle the meth crisis that Gov. Kristi Noem says is ‘growing at an alarming rate.’ The tagline for the campaign: ‘I’m on meth.'”
Noem, a Republican, announced the new campaign in a Facebook video titled “On Meth,” which directs interested parties to a website, “OnMeth.com.”
The campaign is meant to draw attention to the pervasiveness of the drug. The people featured in the ads look like average South Dakotans, and the idea is that meth addiction knows no racial, age, or socio-economic status. Average South Dakota farmers are just as likely to suffer from addiction, it purports, as high schoolers, oil workers, and mothers, and average South Dakotans are responsible for policing their neighborhoods for drugs and caring for their communities.
“What it’s talking about is that each one of us, no matter who we are, that we’re on the case of meth,” Noem says in the Facebook video. “That we’re protecting our family, we’re protecting our friends, we’re protecting our communities from this epidemic that we see.”
“This campaign is going to be about solutions and hope and how every single one of us in South Dakota can partner to be on meth,” Noem adds.
“This is our problem, and together, we need to get on it,” Noem says. “It is filling our jails and prisons, clogging our court systems, and stretching our drug treatment capacity while destroying people and their families.”
The state’s social services director echoed Noem’s sentiments. “It’s evident there’s a need for an aggressive approach to reduce use of the devastating drug,” she said. “This is a movement to educate South Dakotans on the signs of addiction, the treatment resources that are available, and how to implement prevention techniques in their homes and among their communities.”
“The campaign’s launch included a PSA from Noem on YouTube and a website. In the future, Noem said there will be commercials, billboards, Facebook ads and state agencies working with nonprofits to bring relief to people who are dealing with addiction and the meth epidemic,” CNN reports.
The problem is, the images associated with the campaign don’t exactly convey the campaign’s intended meaning.
I’m unclear on the motives of South Dakota’s new campaign…
Meth. We’re on it.I’m sure there wasn’t any better idea. pic.twitter.com/ZSWePQc62X
— Cole McDougall (@colemcdougall) November 18, 2019
The only way to explain South Dakota’s new anti-Meth ads is that everyone involved in their creation is on meth. pic.twitter.com/rXuCagOFhi
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) November 18, 2019
In the words of one Twitter user, “Surprising anti-meth campaign in South Dakota. With the theme ‘Meth. I’m on it,’ what could go wrong?”
The campaign cost taxpayers $450,000, per the state’s financial services website, accessed by the Argus Leader. The sum seems a bit like a bargain given the attention the campaign is now getting on social media.
“‘The tagline is: I’m on meth,’ says the governor of South Dakota, ON VIDEO,” another Twitter user, The New York Times’ Mike Baker, pointed out. “Well, the campaign is sure to achieve the state’s goal of getting people talking about an important issue.”