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The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

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Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

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T R E 4 5 O N

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You are here: Home / Politics / Media / Today’s Public Relations Fail

Today’s Public Relations Fail

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South Dakota, like a lot of other rural states, has a meth problem. Today they rolled out a campaign to deal with it.

Evidently nobody along the way said, um, that could be taken in two ways.

The negligence here is cruel. Let us hope those are models in those photos, and not real people who thought they were helping to deal with South Dakota’s drug problem.

How does something this bad happen? Lack of diversity? An ad agency just in it for the money?

Reader Interactions

117Comments

  2. 2.

    Martin

    I don’t know, this is pretty up there as well:

    While answering a question from a viewer, “What was the weirdest phase you went through growing up?” [Jesse] Watters admitted he thought he was black “for like, a year, year and a half.”

    “Oh, geez!” yelled Greg Gutfeld, co-host of The Five. “Wait, just stop there.”

    Watters did not stop there but continued to explain what he meant by the comment.

    “No, I wanted to be black,” Watters continued. “I did. Really, I had all the gear. I wore all kinds of stuff.”

    “I don’t wanna know,” Gutfeld said.

    Panelist and Fox Business Network host Kennedy asked political analyst Juan Williams if he wanted her to call the human resources department on his behalf. Williams laughingly declined.

    “No, because actually he did a test,” Williams said. “Tell them about the test.”

    “Oh, yeah,” Watters said. “Well, our DNA test says I’m 0.1 percent black.”

    “There you go,” Williams said.

  5. 5.

    Elizabelle

    Wouldn’t you love to have been a fly on the wall when South Dakota’s Office of Tourism got a gander at that?

  6. 6.

    Eric Schneider

    You call it fail, but you have to admit that everyone knows about the program now.

     

    It’s a fine line between fail and self-deprecating win.

  7. 7.

    Gin & Tonic

    I truly didn’t know that that was South Dakota’s outline. I bet Florida can’t stop laughing.

  10. 10.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    I have an explanation for how this happened: meth, they’re on it.

  13. 13.

    mistermix loves your ass

    I’m sure it was some crony of Kristi Noem, gross incompetent governor, who is responsible for this.

  16. 16.

    Kylroy

    I don’t even think a lack of diversity could explain this – what person would be familiar with “I’m on it” meaning “I’m taking care of it” but not “I’m using it”?  To pick the most innocent example, people are “on” antibiotics all the time – who the hell doesn’t catch this?

  17. 17.

    Betty Cracker

    Lots of PSA campaigns like this are pro bono, but nope, I clicked through — SD paid almost half a mil. Still, making a laughingstock of a client isn’t great for the long-term revenue stream, so I surmise it was sheer dumb-fuckery rather than the agency assigning the campaign to an intern recruited from an Amish settlement and not bothering to review it prior to launch.

     

    If I had to guess, I’d say a really senior person and/or the client came up with the tagline and either no one had the guts to tell them that the dual meaning made that slogan a non-starter or just one or two people did and were shouted down by people who wanted to suck up. But damn, that’s a huge fuck-up.

  20. 20.

    the Conster

    Deval Patrick getting more of the black vote than Mayo Pete is *chef’s kiss*

    Looks like Sanders and Warren are tied to each other’s mast when it comes to the AA vote.

    Black vote in SC in new Qpac poll:

    Biden 44%
    Sanders 10%
    Warren 8%
    Harris 6%
    Steyer 4%
    Booker 2%
    Patrick 1%
    Williamson 1%
    Yang 1%
    Buttigieg 0%

  21. 21.

    LeftCoastYankee

    It’s a good thing they trademarked that slogan.  You wouldn’t want everyone copying it without  proper compensation….

  25. 25.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The ad agency pitched the campaign.  South Dakota gave it the green light.

     

    Idiots.

  26. 26.

    Baud

    Maybe they’re trying to clear up the popular misconception that SD suffers from an opiod epidemic.

  27. 27.

    oldster

    Nah, I think it’s working just as intended.

     

    They wanted buzz, visibility, and virality. They got it. Here we are, talking about their campaign.

  28. 28.

    Hoodie

    Maybe they thought they were being edgy, like the Nebraska “it’s not for everyone” campaign? A bit of double entendre?  In other words, maybe they’re admitting they have a meth problem and that it’s everyone’s problem.  That would be just about as stupid, but perhaps understandable.

  29. 29.

    sukabi

    So… is North Dakota’s meth initiative going to be Meth. We’re Cookin’ It!

     

    Adding an FYI… I’m intermittently losing the visual comment edit panel. Android Moto g7 power on ad blocker browser.

  32. 32.

    Shantanu Saha

    Too bad they didn’t make a poster of the Republican governor with that tag line. It would make a great campaign sign for the next election.

  33. 33.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Betty Cracker: And I would bet that the one or two people who said, ‘This is a BAD idea’ and were shouted down are still being treated like they aren’t team players.

  37. 37.

    Dick Woodcock

    i have a good friend that is a recovering meth addict.

    She literally gasped when I showed her this logo.

    She thought this was a joke.  Straight up.  I had to show her the website to show that it wasn’t.

  38. 38.

    The Moar You Know

    Hi, I’m South Dakota and I’m here to clean your bathroom with a toothbrush for the next 96 hours.

  40. 40.

    Boris, Rasputin's Evil Twin

    Recently I read this in a funeral home’s website:

    “Make the Cremation Memorable.”

    It brought to mind images of s’mores. marshmallows, and concealed firecrackers. If there’s a viewing window you’ll never think of the televised Yule log the same way ever again.

  43. 43.

    theturtlemoves

    And once again the land of my birth manages to do something incredibly embarrassing.  Noem is such a moron.  Makes me super-sad I moved away 15 years ago.

  44. 44.

    Yutsano

    I actually know someone who works for the government of South Dakota. Oh man am I gonna have to rib him over this!

  46. 46.

    PJ

    @the Conster: It’s curious that Steyer (who?) has 4%, and Harris is only 2 points higher than him.  I thought South Carolina was going to be her bulwark state.

  47. 47.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JDM: I knew before I even clicked that it was going to be the “big dirty hoe” scene! Lovely to find another Dog River fanatic in JackalLand.

  48. 48.

    JimV

    I am going to guess they honestly thought it was a clever, attention-getting play on words, although, “We’re not ON it, but we’re on it” would have been better. Just guessing.

     

    I mean there must be some bureaucrats who objected and were told, “Don’t worry, this will be cool to the youth. We know this stuff, and do it for a living.”

  50. 50.

    Scott P.

    In the other thread, folks were all for drug legalization, so maybe these folks are just on the bandwagon.

  51. 51.

    scav

    Life must be rough when you can only hold a single concept or meaning in your head at a time.

    Clearly.

    Hide the bubblegum, They’re off on a stroll!

  55. 55.

    SFAW

    @Mnemosyne:

    Just double-checking that you are familiar with the TV character, yes?

     

    I’ve actually never watched it, but my comment was a reference to one of the few things (I think) I know about the character. It was (an attempt at) a nerd joke.

  56. 56.

    Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.

    A few of the commenters on Twitter noted that if you look at the photo ads, the message is clearer: that the meth problem extends to people from all walks of life (old Cowboys, young HS football players, etc). So it’s not a problem of “those people”. That seems a little more understandable, but the slogan by itself is clumsy. Hoping this sparks a real discussion in SC but the early response does not make me optimistic.

  57. 57.

    Libby’s Person

    My charitable guess is that they were trying to get out the message that anyone could have this problem, not just ‘bad people’ or ‘those people’, which would encourage people to think of it as a public health problem rather than a late enforcement issue.  If that is what they were going for, the reactions of Juicers shows that they didn’t do a very good job conveying this message!

  58. 58.

    debbie

    Ohio’s anti-opioid campaign is running commercials about a town called Denial. “Denial is a great place to be.” Nothing ever happens in Denial.” etc. They all end with “Don’t live in denial.” “A lot of people, especially addiction counselors, are upset with this campaign and think it’s not necessary. I think anything raising public awareness can’t be a bad thing.

     

    https://dontliveindenial.org/

  59. 59.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @SFAW: What you did there. I see it. Or do I? Really, there’s a great deal of uncertainty, to the the extent you could almost say there’s a principle behind it.

     

    I wonder if schrodingers_cat has anything relevant to say here…

     

    Ceterum censeo factionem Republicanam esse delendam.

  66. 66.

    japa21

    Apparently Pompeo has announced the US no longer considers the West Bank settlements inconsistent with international law. This is a result of a task force review of the situation led by Jared.

     

    Why am I not surprised.

  67. 67.

    Amir Khalid

    This is more embarrassing than the Wisconsin Tourism Federation situation, which at least was not self-inflicted.

  68. 68.

    J R in WV

    I hate to admit,, but it took me a minute to get it, just looking at the front page.

     

    The SD outline with the slogan “We’re on it!” were pretty inconspicuous at first. But when you click around some…  oh, boy.

  71. 71.

    jl

    @Baud: “I think the AIDS people had a similar ad strategy at some point, trying to show that AIDS can effect anybody. ”

     

    I think there was an AIDS PSA slogan that went something like:

    ‘They’ are really us.

    Which seems better and less liable to double meanings. And, actually, dropped some epidemiological science and facts about the real nature of the spread of AIDS on people’s heads.

     

    But, the SD misfire might start a trend. Like ‘Corruption: Trump is on it!”

     

    I wonder what the BAUD 2020! PSA slogan for the stale beer dependency problem will look like.

  72. 72.

    FelonyGovt

    This reminds me of something my daughter heard in her marketing class. An ad for Electrolux vacuums, evidently translated directly from Swedish, that said “nothing sucks like Electrolux”.

  73. 73.

    wjs

    What’s worse is that taxpayer dollars were spent on that atrocity of a campaign, and the people in charge of it probably thought they were going to get awards for their incredible work.

     

    It’s not a South Dakota thing.

     

    It’s a “gee, I work for the [insert state] government, I went to [insert another state] University and got a BA in Communications and I’m super special and my crap doesn’t stink, so here’s my brilliant idea and my mom thought it was cool” thing.

  75. 75.

    Jay

    @Cheryl Rofer:

     

    the program and the website make it very clear, that the “meth, we are on it” is about the broad based addiction to meth in South Dakota.

     

    the MSM “hot take” for laughs is not different than many deliberate “misreportings” in the excreteable MSM.

  76. 76.

    debbie

    @Betty Cracker:

     

    Their intent is to grab attention, which they clearly have done. I’m also wondering about South Dakota’s diversity. Has it become more diverse than it was in my childhood, when it was zero?

  77. 77.

    JoeyJoeJoe

    Maybe I’m the only one bothered by its proliferation, but when did using the word “fail” as a noun become a thing?  Just for me, I find it grating when I see that written, and the usage seems to be everywhere.

  79. 79.

    Yutsano

    @japa21: Someone tell Pompeo international law doesn’t give two shits what his opinion is. I’m just amazed it took the administration this long to dump on the Palestinians that hard.

  81. 81.

    Jay

    #BorderPatrolRapeCulture Here is mine: I joined in 1995, not knowing anything about the Border Patrol or the Border. The first day of the academy, they separated the men & women under the guise of needing to talk to women about their hair and makeup.— Jenn Budd (@BuddJenn) November 17, 2019

    Full thread,…..

  83. 83.

    Amir Khalid

    @FelonyGovt:

    It was probably fine in the original Swedish, where I’d guess that the word for suck doesn’t have that other meaning. But companies do like to have a consistent message everywhere they do business, so someone in management must have insisted on using the same slogan all over the world.

  85. 85.

    sdhays

    @Jay: I have to disagree. This is their slogan in an advertisement, wording that the state of South Dakota paid $400k for. If it’s prone to ridicule, that’s on them.

    I think it was probably intentional to generate buzz, but I guess we’ll have to see if the level of ridicule was what they expected or if they misjudged it.

  87. 87.

    Jay

    @Omnes Omnibus:

     

    and the State is “on it”, as in addicted to the use of meth, and it’s not the stereotypical “junkies”, it’s become, once again, “Mama’s little helper”, for everyone from truckers and landscapers, to rig rats and Union busting Labour Lawyers.

  89. 89.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Jay: Yes, I did understand.  And for what it worth, I’m not the management-side labor lawyer who comments here.  Umbrage taken on Steve in the Wherethefuck’s and my own behalf.

  91. 91.

    CaseyL

    I hooted and hawed and laughed ’til I cried – but I have to admit, the ad DOES get your attention, it was apparently MEANT to show that anyone can become be a meth addict, and right now I think it’s even odds we’re reacting exactly as we’re meant to.

  93. 93.

    Searcher

    You know the strategy where you present your pointy-haired boss with two options, one find and one obviously terrible, so that they can feel as if they are making the decision?

     

    This is the downside of that strategy.

  94. 94.

    Brachiator

    I’m sure that it’s been said many times already, but it is a shame that America did not look at the crack epidemic as a serious health issue, but instead insisted on demonizing those afflicted and emphasizing the moral failures of individuals and communities.

     

    And so far, no evangelical preacher has given us the high sign from the Lord Almighty that meth is God’s way of telling us that He don’t like the gays.

  95. 95.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Jay: One should not have to consult a website to find out the meaning of a slogan or ad.

    Of course it’s about addiction to meth in South Dakota. The slogan, however, could be saying that is a good thing or that it is a bad thing.

  100. 100.

    PJ

    @Brachiator: The demonizing (really, dehumanizing) of black people in inner cities already existed (cf. Reagan and “welfare queens” ), crack (and other hard drugs) just allowed the government to ramp up the efforts to keep black people down, by putting more of them in prison and more of them into addiction.  Back then, there were voices advocating that addiction was a public health problem and that criminalizing it only increased the cycle of crime and misery, but that was not a political winner until sufficient numbers of rural and suburban white people became addicts.

  102. 102.

    Miss Bianca

    I…I…can’t. Even.

     

    Are we sure that someone at the advertising agency wasn’t putting this out there as a joke that somehow, tragically, comically, got taken seriously by the state?

     

    I’m just groping for possible answers here.

  105. 105.

    Uncle Cosmo

    It’s NORTH Dakota with the Keystone pipeline (& associated spills), right? Otherwise I’d suspect someone was huffing serious polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

     

    On second thought, they’re probably downwind, so…

  106. 106.

    Butter Emails

    @the Conster:

    Looks like Sanders and Warren are tied to each other’s mast when it comes to the AA vote.

    Not everyone can be the powerhouse with South Carolina African American voters that Klobuchar is,

  107. 107.

    debbie

    It says here that the agency that created the campaign is in Minneapolis. So much for my thought that it was a left coast agency that knew nothing about the Upper Midwest.

  108. 108.

    bbleh

    @Betty Cracker: And in research just to make sure this was real, I discovered that the Great State of South Dakota™ has budgeted a generous total of around a million dollars for actual treatment of meth addiction!

     

    Surely half that amount was appropriate to spend to tout their commitment, amirite?

     

    Republicans.  You can’t live with ’em, you can kill ’em, but damn there’s just so many …

  112. 112.

    Scott Alloway

    @oldster:

    “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
    ― Oscar Wilde

     

    The agency hit it on this.

  114. 114.

    Peter

    Oy. Was “South Dakota: This Place Is A Meth” taken? How about “Don’t Meth With South Dakota”? “I Think Therefore I Amphetamine”? “We Brake Bad Because We Have A Need For Speed”?

     

    Can you tell I have a deadline?

  115. 115.

    Miss Bianca

    @Peter: What, were you going thru’ the agency trash bins, reading the wadded-up first drafts?

     

    Seriously…you made me laugh. This…this can’t be good.

  117. 117.

    Melusine

    @Jay: The slogan completely overrides the intended message. They made a “clever” campaign the focus, instead of the horrendous problem. People who see the ad or billboards aren’t talking about how serious the meth issue is in SD. There’s very little info presented, and a ridiculously inappriate slogan repeated over and over. The slogan/campaign choices suck up all the attention.This is an ad agency screaming, “Look at me, I’m so edgy I deserve awards!!”
     

    The Denial, OH ad was better crafted in terms of actually communicating the reality of the problem.

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