An Egg Is A Terrible Thing To Waste

“This is your Brain on Drugs” was a public service announcement created in 1987 by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America foundation. The ad was later re-imaged in 1998 under the same title, and much of the same premise. The arguments of both advertisements were the caustic effects of drugs on your brain. The PFDA formed in the mid eighties with the simple idea of using ads to advocate the dangers of drugs use. They believed the persuasive nature of advertisements could denounce a product as effectively as they could promote them. Their first real success came with the original “This is your Brain on Drugs” advertisement. As a result, many of today’s public service announcements mirror the same techniques. These techniques greatly oversimplify drug use by using common logical fallacies. The 1998 version is no different. The ad greatly oversimplifies through the use of begging the question, slippery slope, and dogmatic appeals. To better understand this, it is necessary to set the scene beforehand.

The Ad starts with a young actress in a kitchen. She presents a pristine, white egg to the camera as an example of your brain, and then she presents the drug in question in the form of a cast iron skillet. She places the egg on the counter and violently smashes it with the pan. Finally, she presents the egg yolk as it drips from the pan down her arm as evidence of heroin’s effects on the body.

From there the situation quickly slips off the rails. As the egg drippings hit the floor, the young woman begins to randomly smash dishes, light fixtures, and wall clocks. Each act of destruction equates to heroin's effects on a person’s personal life: loss of family, friends, and finances. It’s not until the dust settles, and the fast pace ...

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...can be defended with facts… ought to be off the table in a free society” (Lunsford, Ruszkiewicz 525).

All things considered, one can understand how the use of these faulty tactics can cause a message to become weak. For instance, it’s an argument’s ability to stand up to counter arguments that makes it a viable one. The use of fallacious tactics often calls for one to overlook this simple fact, and jump straight to conclusions that cannot be supported under fire. The most tragic casualty in this instance is the message itself, specifically when the message is as noble as keeping people from using, and abusing illicit drugs.

Works Cited

Lundsford, Andrea, John Ruszkiewicz. Everything’s An Argument. Boston, New York. Bedford/St Martin’s, 2010. Print.

Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Advertisement. This is your Brain on Drugs. 1998, Web. 25. Sept. 2011