What Is Talk To Frank?
Talk To Frank is an anti-drugs campaign in the United Kingdom that has been running for the longest time. Though, has the campaign stopped anybody from using any drugs?
Ten years prior a police Swat group collided with a calm suburban kitchen and transformed the substance of medication education in the UK until the end of time. The doom and gloom teachings coupled with pushing to keep away from the drug pushers who are everywhere was thrown out. A sort of comedy was also brought into the message in the bid to pass it appropriately.
In the main advertisement, an adolescent kid brings in a police grab squad to capture his mom when she recommends they have a tranquil chat about medications. There was also a new message Drugs are illegal. Talking about the isn't. So talk to Frank."
Frank A Pleasant Private Drug Counsel
Devised by the advertising agency, Mother, Frank was actually the National Drugs Helpline brand new name. It was supposed to represent a trusted, big brother figure that young people could call for advice about drugs. The quests of Pablo, the dog that's used as a substance mule, to a tour around a brain warehouse have been put forward under the Frank name, making it a well-known trade name amongst the youth of the nation.
According to Justin Tindal, the creative director of Leo Burnett the ad agency, what is of more importance is the fact that no-one ever saw Frank physically, so it was difficult for mockers to pick on him or blame him for not treating the kids right. Even the YouTube videos that spoof Frank are respectful. There's also no indication that Frank is working for the government, which is unusual for a government funded campaign.
Right from the days of Nancy Reagan, a lot has been done about drugs education, and the Grange Hill cast which a lot of people opine that it did more harm than good, simply encouraged people to "Just Say No" to drugs.
Like the Frank campaign, most European ads now focus on giving unbiased information so that young people can make up their own minds. There are still images of prison cells and hurt parents being presented in countries that have strong penalties for drugs possession. For example, in Singapore, a recent campaign recently told young people, "You play, you pay."
In the UK, the Above the Influence campaign has cost the federal government millions of dollars and uses humour and cautionary stories to encourage people to choose positive alternatives to drugs The focus of the campaign is to talk to the youth in a language they understand, like the one ad showing a group of "stoners" stranded on a coach. But the scare tactics is still prevalent in majority of the campaigns against drugs around the globe, especially the "descent into hell" which is drug inspired. The DrugsNot4Me series recently launched a commercial in Canada that shows a beautiful, self-assured young lady metamorphosis after using "drugs" into a shaking, hollow-eyed mess.
Ads that reveal the dangers of drug abuse mostly push frustrated people into experimenting with drugs, according to a data from the anti-drugs campaign of the UK from 1999 to 2004.
The opposition Conservative politicians were initially against Frank, simply because it pointed out the ups and downs of drug use, but it made giant strides.
An early online advertisement told people that cocaine made you feel on of the world.
It was not generally simple to get the balance of the message accurate. The person behind this cocaine ad has said that he now thinks he thought the average person browsing the web had a longer attention span. The negative effects were given at the end of the animated ad and some viewers might not have watched the whole thing. However, Powell says the point was to be more legitimate with youngsters about medications, keeping in mind the end goal to build up the believability of the Frank brand.
According to the Home Office, 67% of younger people in a survey stated that they would ask Frank if they required advice on drugs. A total of 225,892 calls were made to the Frank helpline and a total of 3,341,777 visits to the site in 2011/12. For him, this shows that the campaign is very successful.
However, just like every other anti-drugs campaign in the world , there's no evidence that Frank has actually stopped people from taking drugs.
Drug usage in the UK has gone around 9% in the decade since the conflict propelled, yet specialists say quite a bit of this is down to a decrease in cannabis utilization, potentially connected to changing states of mind towards smoking tobacco among youngsters.
What Is Frank?
FRANK is a national drug education program that was established at the Home Office of the British Government and the Department of Health in 2003. It was designed to lower the rate of both legal and illegal drug use by providing education to teenagers and young people about what the effects of using drug and alcohol could be. It has run numerous media promotions on radio and the web.
Services
FRANK gives the accompanying services to individuals who look for data and/or advice regarding drugs
- A website
- 24/7 anonymous telephone number
- A classified live chat facility, accessible from 2pm-6pm everyday
- A service to locate counselling and treatment