NSW Government’s Stoner Sloth campaign cops social backlash a month after launch
A campaign by the NSW Government which launched a month ago has come under fire on social media over the weekend for depicting cannabis using teenagers as cartoon-style sloths, spawning parody videos and merchandise.
The Stoner Sloth campaign, which is understood to have been created by Saatchi & Saatchi, consists of three videos showing the effects of cannabis on young people by portraying them as sloths failing to recognise salt, flunking an exam and having an awkward social interaction at a party. It has a tagline “You’re worse on weed”.
This morning Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that the The National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre is asking the NSW Government to remove its name from the campaign.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=36&v=yaByLj8A2mk
It is unclear why the campaign, which was launched in late November, only gained traction on social media over the weekend.
Many commenters said how much they like the ads because sloths have a certain cult appeal amongst young people, with one writing on the Stoner Sloth Facebook page they are “one of the most adorable animals in the world” and adding “where do I get some weed?”.
Stoner Sloth is also the name of a marijuana shop in the US.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=30&v=BLqEvVWZzZ4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=30&v=u4ozxlrX158
While a spokesperson for the government is standing by the ads telling news outlets the campaign was “designed to be shareable” it appears NSW Premier Mike Baird may not be such a fan after he tweeted: “Just saw the #StonerSloth ads. Not sure where NSW Gov’s ad guys found Chewbaccas siblings, but those videos are… Quite something.”
Then he quipped: “I’ve been assured no sloths were harmed in the making of those #StonerSloth ads.”
A parody video has also sprung up turning the dinner table version on its head by talking about how harmful salt can be to people.
While another plays on an infamous incident with former Prime Minister Tony Abbott during an interview:
And another remixes the sloth with a Dr Dre track:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxqWsiLvyPY
And another goes into the Stoner Sloth’s fantasy land:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMR3gUjy0WY
Others have created merchandise including t-shirts paying homage to the Stoner Sloth.
They should’ve waited until they had straightened up before they wrote this.
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It was Saatchi according to Campiagn Brief/BestAds
http://www.bestadsontv.com/ad/75542/Anti-Weed-Exam
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This is hilarious!
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Thank you Saatchis and whomever is responsible for the salt parody… there is nothing like laughing so hard you nearly wee a little bit.
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Weed these days makes you fly in your mind…..
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I can see why people are criticizing it but I don’t think it’s too bad. It’s good that a Government department is trying something different. Do you really want an old person on TV telling young kids to not do something? I assume the campaign is doing what the objectives are, raising awareness of the negative effects of weed.
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Hooks into teenagers paranoia that everything they do is being scrutiniised and the message hits in the right spot. Don’t think this is parody worthy at all, the parodies are more awks to watch than the actual content.
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They made a mistake by assuming the audience doesn’t like sloths. They were wrong.
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Department of Health anti ice ad – https://youtu.be/rUP7oH4ELlQ – 2,710 views.
Stoner sloth compilation – 1,736,367 views.
Parodys, merch etc. abound – and all around a very simple message – dope isn’t good for you.
We’ve done a lot of work targeting youth around mental health, and creating engagement is a huge challenge. This article could equally have been titled “NSW Gov campaign does a brilliant job and actually gets noticed by it’s target audience, who are exposed to the message and take it on board as popular culture”
And yet it seems all the media is determined to slag it off as a “failure” – can someone explain to me which bit has failed ? It seems to me the results are likely to show this as a success in youth targeting and engagement, rather than the “social media fail” the article is trying to paint it as.
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So who is head of planing at Saatchis http://www.buzzfeed.com/elaina.....oj1xv2Jg55
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The originals are an honest attempt to say something to a strata of society that never has wanted, and probably never will want, to be told. They, as we all did in our teenage, love to learn but hate to be told anything.
Some true adults will always want to appear hip, and with it, and younger than their years, by pretending to know what teens want, and agreeing with any protest or general grunting that emanates from the teen ranks.
Weed and drugs in general are a scourge and a drain on the best years of anyone’s life, a user always imagines that things are better than they are, that’s why so many people smoked tobacco for such a long time, only after many years of suffering and death, do we realise that the habit is crazy.
The parodies are neither clever nor entertaining, and they are certainly not well informed.
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Geez Mike, if you can’t see where this is a failure…
No-one is sharing it because it’s an effective message that resonates. They’re sharing it because it’s so bad and fails to land a convincing message with situations that are terribly contrived. Sorry but, the engagement you speak isn’t around debating or agreeing whether the dope is bad for you – no where are youth sharing this with a positive message. They’re essentially anointing it as a mascot if you look at those memes and merchandise closely..
Additionally, failure is also
A Doctor writing an editorial in the SMH slamming it.
The National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre wanting it’s name taken off it.
And a Premier that could only joke about it
That’s what failure looks like, Mike
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This ad looks like it was made by someone’s daggy dad trying to appeal to the cool kids of today, because it was made by someone’s daggy dad trying to appeal to the cool kids.
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I’m a former teenage stoner so this is all very confusing for me, but I have two serious questions:
Is Delilah wearing a bow in her hair because when she grows up, she wants to be a princess?
How does a three-toed sloth cover the shottie?
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When I saw the article headline I thought it was an ad about the ex head of the Nats and Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner! Never knew his nickname was Sloth!
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Strong work based in harmless truth. Well done whoever made it.
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I don’t have any opinions to share I am just making a comment so I get email updates of what the penut gallery has to say about this.
Oh, but that’s not how you use the word ‘quipped’.
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If I Choose To Consume Cannabis, smoke it or stick it up may arse for that matter, then WTF has it got to do with anyone else in Australia aye’ how does that effect anyone else” Oh That’s right It doesn’t one single bit, because it is my life no one else’s.. It’s certainly not the idiotic Australian & State governments , So You Can F 88K off with this brainwashing propaganda bullshit I will tell you that right now. You Make Me sick Australia with this type off lying crap all the time, telling people what they should and shouldn’t do with there own life.. F 88K OFF for F 88k SAKE AND LET ME LIVE MY LIFE IN PEICE….THC CANNABIS IS HARMLESS NEVER TAKIN A SOUL FACT!!
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Drugs are bad, m’kay.
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@IMLNYGIS, You are being cruel to the cannabis plant by sticking it up your rear end. Plants have feelings and deserve to live like anyone else.
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Sweet Sloth in “Leafy Goodness”
https://politicalfilm.wordpress.com/2015/12/21/sweet-sloth-in-leafy-goodness-stonersloth/
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Take the message from this ad and spruce it up a bit – you’ve basically got ‘this is your teen on weed’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub_a2t0ZfTs
Which basically became an icon for drug users amd spawned millions of parodies. Won’t belong before Stoner Sloth starts appearing in Snoop Doggy Dog videos.
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