Women's Collection from Marketing to Counter-Marketing
Never Trip Alone Always Use 2 Player Mode N2o Nitrous Oxide
Abstract
While not for a tobacco product, this one-page advertisement found in the Philip Morris collection demonstrates how corporations use teens' fascination with drugs to market their products, and in the process glamorize and instiutionalize drug use to youth.
The ad was found among documents belonging to Jodi Sansone, Senior Manager of Philip Morris' Youth Smoking Prevention Programs around 1998-99. The ad is for a Sony Playstation video game released in 1998 called "Nitrous Oxide." It features a head wearing a gas mask and headphones. Underneath the text says,
"Never trip alone. Always use 2 player mode."
The text below that says:
"Breathe in. Breathe out. Play it alone. Play it with a friend. Head rush and techno-music included. Flashbacks sold separately."
A logo at the upper left in the ad says "music fueled by the Crystal Method," words which bear an uncomfortably close resemblance to the words "crystal meth," a street name for the powerfully addictive (and often locally manufactured) drug methamphetamine.
The ad carries the logo of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and a "TEEN" rating by the the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which indicates "content suitable for persons age 13 or older." Quotes:
Fields
- Quotes
Never trip alone Always use 2 player mode N2O - Nitrous Oxide
[Fine print]:
Breathe in. Breathe out. Play it alone. Play it with a friend. Head rush and techno-music included. Flashbacks sold separately. Available only on PLAYSTATION game console.
- Type
- Advertisement
- Company
- Philip Morris
- Author
- Gremlin Interactive Ltd.
- Recipient
- Presumed corporate recipient, Philip Morris (This document was found in the area of Jodi Sansone, Senior Manager of PM's Youth Smoking Prevention Programs c. 1998-99)
Document Images
