Nothing Happens

For Wallows album, see Nothing Happens (album).

"Nothing Happens", also called "Nothing can happen to you, too", or "Marijuana can make nothing happen to you, too", was an anti-cannabis public service announcement created by the United States Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

Description

The black-and-white PSA shows two friends sharing a joint in a dark room with a single window backlighting them. The room turns out to belong to one of the friends' parents, in their house where the friends have lived for "what, fifteen years?" one of them guesses. One friend sarcastically says to the other "Marijuana can mess you up," and asks if has yet gotten the other to "get into other drugs and start mugging people." The interlocutor answers "Nah, I didn't do anything. In fact, I'd say I'm exactly the same as when I smoked my first joint." An off-screen voice is heard to say "Eddie, did you even look for a job today?" to which he replies "No, ma." while quickly trying to conceal evidence of drug use. The scene fades out and the words "Nothing happens with marijuana" appear above "Partnership for a Drug-Free America" with a voice-over "Marijuana can make nothing happen to you, too."^[a]

Academic research

Further information: National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign § Effects

The campaign is notable for having been assessed in a 1999 controlled media research study, followed up by further research in 2008, to be a specific example of a PSA that actually increased teen use of cannabis by showing that it is "healthy experimentation, interesting to try, fun, and normal".^[2][b] Other ONDCP public service announcements are said by researchers to have had the same boomerang effect on cannabis consumption.^[4][5] A review of the 1999 study stated:

Exposure to the PSAs (versus control messages) reduced the perceived risk of drug use and increased curiosity to use marijuana. Youth may have misinterpreted ... the tagline "marijuana can make nothing happen to you, too" ... literally.

— Ratneshwar and Mick, 2005^[6]

Other reactions

Author Tamim Ansary cited the ad, withdrawn from television "right away", as a counterpoint to anti-drug propaganda when educating his own children.^[7]

Footnotes

1. Details from Wagner and Sundar 2008, Appendix A^[1]
2. The study used The Simpsons episode "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" as a masking stimulus, with variable PSAs played during breaks "in order to avoid participants recalling" the PSA used.^[3]

References

1. Wagner & Sundar 2008, p. 54.
2. Wagner & Sundar 2008, p. 48.
3. Wagner & Sundar 2008, p. 45.
4. Mosher & Akins 2007, p. 250.
5. Fishbein et al. 2002.
6. Ratneshwar & Mick 2005, p. 191.
7. Nico Pitney (January 8, 2015), "Tamim Ansary On Life, Regrets, Travel, And The Last Book He'll Ever Write", Huffington Post Books

Sources

• Ratneshwar, S.; Mick, D.G. (2005). Inside Consumption: Consumer Motives, Goals, and Desires. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-134-29375-9.
• Mosher, C.J.; Akins, S. (2007). Drugs and Drug Policy: The Control of Consciousness Alteration. SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-0-7619-3007-5.
• Fishbein, Martin; Hall-Jamieson, Kathleen; Zimmer, Eric; von Haeften, Ina; Nabi, Robin (February 2002), "Avoiding the Boomerang: Testing the Relative Effectiveness of Antidrug Public Service Announcements Before a National Campaign", American Journal of Public Health, 92 (2): 238–45, doi:10.2105/AJPH.92.2.238, PMC 1447050, PMID 11818299
• Wagner, C.B.; Sundar, S.S. (September 2008), "The Curiosity-Arousing Function of Anti-Drug Ads", The Open Communication Journal, 2 (1), E. W. Scripps School of Journalism: 43–59, doi:10.2174/1874916X00802010043
• Wagner, C.B.; Sundar, S.S. (1999), Social cognition and anti-drug PSA effects on adolescent attitudes, Paper presented to the Health Communication Division at the 49th annual conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), San Francisco – via Penn State Media Effects Research Lab