Parents often have an image in their heads about who might offer their kids drugs that has nothing to do with reality. The members of Generation Einstein, as children born after 1988 are being called, have a good grasp on perception management. You see it in the popular teen shows like Gossip Girls; you hear it in their references to what is, or what isn’t “off brand” for them.
This is making it harder for innocent parents to discern who is a menace to their family and who isn’t. This challenge taken to another level when you throw into the equation the fact that these parents are not American ex-hippies, well aware of the subject at hand, but 1st generation Latinos, more familiar with kidnappings & violence than they are of the slow burning social ills that plague our urban centers. They face an uphill battle of cultural differences as their children adopt the language and customs of American kids, which they often have trouble understanding.
Many such parents prefer to defer such important, but often awkward, conversations to another family member or to the school system without realizing that such procrastination facilitates the opportunity for others to make that first introduction to Mary Jane. Parents also have trouble with the idea that kids as young as 11 or 12 are already getting exposed to pot.
These latest ads were developed with Latino parents in mind to bring precisely these ideas to life. The pictures are sweet and cynical meant to drive a point home. They are meant to be provocative to get kids and parents talking about the subject. The idea is that if we give parents and kids a reason to start talking about the subject, we’ve accomplished half the battle.