How would you feel if the only thing standing between your children and the dangers of drugs, alcohol, and premarital sex was a string of wideely ignored, poorly constructed television commercials? Fortunately, it hasn't come to that, but can you honestly say that the advertisements for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and abstinence until marriage really work?
Those commercials are often ignored or mocked by the very audience it is intended to effect. The children, for the most part, don't listen to the children in the commercials, the children that they're supposed to relate to. They don't think that other children feel like that.
As well, it's probably better for parents to convince, rather than television. For one, there is no one-size-fits-all set of morals; people think differently, feel differently, from one another. Television commercials cannot see what drives individuals; only masses. Parents, on the other hand, often know their children, often can know what effects their children. If a child doesn't listen to their mother, it's likely that they won't listen to anyone.
I don't feel that the television commercials for abstinence until marriage and the Partnership for a Drug Free America don't work. People will not pay attention to them. They are a waste of money.
Author's Note:
I wrote this for a speech that was supposed to be written on-the-spot . . . this seemed to be the most interesting subject, and I decided that I would take this position. Not much to say, really.
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