Campaign misses the mark

“Meth. We’re on it.” 
Sounds like something the drug addicted bad guy in a movie would say, right? 
Nope, it is South Dakota’s new anti-meth campaign and the state paid an outside firm nearly $450,000 for the campaign that features the old and the young claiming they are on meth in a 30-second commercial.
We feel it is ironic for South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to believe that the backlash to the state’s new anti meth campaign is bringing awareness to the issue, which she has openly done through several avenues since the release of the campaign on Monday. 
Stories about the campaign have reached far and wide, making national news. So yes, Governor Noem, you have brought awareness to the issue of methamphetamine addiction, but the so called “clever” campaign has only flung the state into the national spotlight in a negative way. 
Methamphetamine addiction is not a joke, and those who are impacted by the drug on a daily basis will see no humor in watching others claim they are on the drug to bring awareness. This clever attempt has fallen on its face and the $450,000 was truly wasted on what we see as a joke surrounding one of the biggest issues facing this nation. 
A more appropriate avenue would have been expressing the damage that the drug causes and we are curious how many hands this campaign slipped through before making its national debut earlier this week. 
While the idea was clever and we truly can see the idea behind it, we feel this campaign poorly missed its mark and was in extremely poor taste.