Have you seen the Stoner Sloth yet? If you haven’t, I suggest you jump over to YouTube and give it a quick watch before reading further.
The Stoner Sloth was Australia’s latest attempt at an anti-cannabis campaign – and at this point I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say that campaign failed.
It depicted “stoners” as a human-sized sloth who had trouble with everyday activities like having dinner with the family, doing classwork, and socializing with peers. What was supposed to deter many from marijuana ended up turning into one of the best viral internet sensations of 2015!
So let’s take a look at the claims that these Stoner Sloth commercials offer as reasons to stay away from marijuana.
Poor Ability with School Work
This one might have been acceptable 15 or 20 years ago – heck maybe even 10 years ago – but these days the idea that smoking marijuana greatly impairs one’s ability to succeed in school is out the window. On the contrary, there is evidence that sativa strains (higher in CBD) can actually be an effective treatment for individuals with ADD/ADHD.
Unable to Perform Simple Tasks
Okay, so this one has gotten a lot of attention – and been immortalized by a Stoner Sloth “Pass the Salt” t-shirt! It depicts that the Stoner Sloth is unable to perform as simple of a task as passing the salt. This one is just hilarious – anyone who has ever smoked marijuana knows how untrue this is – weed does not impair your ability to tell salt from a salad bowl, I promise you.
Causing Social Awkwardness
The last of the three commercials shows the Stoner Sloth at a teenage party where he is unable to fit in with the crowd – I suppose he’s “too high” to know what to do around other people? The thing is, medical marijuana has been proven time and time again to work against anxiety and depression – meaning it’s a terrific aid for people who have social anxiety, rather than making it worse.
Does the Commercial Promote Drinking?
Now there is one last thing that I noticed – and I’m not the only one – about the last commercial. At the party, the teenagers are all holding red cups – which thanks to the Toby Keith song “Red Solo Cup” is known around the world as a symbol for drinking alcohol. So does this commercial, even if it’s only sort of implied, condone drinking alcohol while trying to tell you how dangerous weed can be?
I’ve met so, so many different types of people – some who drink and some who smoke and some who just don’t partake at all. Of all these people, the alcoholics are generally the ones with anger problems, job problems and home life problems – so their slogan “Your Worse on Weed” just doesn’t ring true to me – and that probably stands for so many of you reading this as well.
There are just so, so many things wrong with these commercials. They might have worked a long time ago – back before knowledge about marijuana and its benefits was readily available – but these days, there is no way the Stoner Sloth campaign was going to get anywhere other than where it ended up – one more hilarious joke for the internet to mock.
