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Inventive #CookinWithMolly PSA Calls Attention to Dangers of Party Drugs

The centerpiece online video takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to educating without lecturing.

Steve Hall on January 12, 2015 at 1:46 pm

Working with DDB Canada, Toronto Crime Stoppers, a collaboration between Toronto police, community and media, has unveiled a drug awareness PSA called Cookin’ With Molly.

The public service campaign urges 15-25 year old recreational and party drug users to be more vigilant about MDMA, more popularly known as Ecstasy or Molly.

The PSA, directed by Michael Downing of Partners Film, brilliantly marries the cooking show motif with the tried and true “this is your brain on drugs” approach to anti-drug messaging.

In the spot, we see a jubilant “chef” — in an appropriately seedy setting — who takes us through his recipe for creating the perfect pill. The spot closes with “Molly is not the drug you think it is.”

The effort, which will run from January 9 through the end of February, follows the death of two people at the VELD Music Festival last summer.

Explaining the campaign, Toronto Crime Stoppers Vice Chair Sean Sportun said,

“We felt compelled to raise awareness about this issue to help make our communities safer. MDMA pills don’t come with a list of ingredients and since they can be cut with anything from LSD to caffeine, users can never be certain of what they are getting.”

The video is running online and is supported with preroll, newspaper and transit shelter ads as well as out-of-home advertising and hashtagged (#CookinWithMolly) social media outreach. The creative points consumers to www.cookinwithmolly.com, a Tumblr which currently houses just the video but is expected to be beefed up with additional content and shareable assets soon.

CrimeStoppers unveiled the campaign at a press conference

Our #CookinWithMolly awareness PSA is officially launched – thx to the creative genius of @DDBCanada-Toronto pic.twitter.com/MzrbofxWrs

— 1800222TIPS (@1800222TIPS) January 9, 2015

And it is promoting the video, as well, on Twitter:

Dangers of Molly aka MDMA #SocialResponsibility for a safer Toronto. Lets get this poison off our streets http://t.co/WOd4kPUehC

— 1800222TIPS (@1800222TIPS) January 10, 2015

And on Facebook:

Post by Toronto Crime Stoppers.

Of the creative approach to the campaign, DDB Canada Senior Art Director Craig Ferguson said:

“These party-type drugs have been a growing concern, and Toronto Crime Stoppers wanted to tackle this head on without being heavy-handed, so the cooking show format is intended to be tongue-in-cheek. At the same time, this creative still allows us to educate people on the harmful, hidden ingredients found in MDMA which was our key objective.”

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.