The best thing about this is, unlike the Saw PSA/partnership, it seems unnecessary from a PR perspective. Role Models is about a mentoring relationship, but it goes off the rails so quickly that you're never supposed to believe it's representative of real life. While the Saw movies could end all blood shortages, world hunger, child abuse, and jealousy and still be a horrible pestilence visited upon the earth by a cruel and sadistic god. What I'm trying to say here is that Paul Rudd's heart is full of authentic and unselfish altruism. (You can donate to BB/BS right on the YouTube page.)
Apparently Clemson University has such a problem with drunken nudity, vandalism, promiscuity, and friend-humiliation (I'm thinking Sharpie-face-drawing?) that they commissioned an entire slick PSA commercial urging their students to control themselves:
Either Clemson has such a serious problem with drunk students that they're willing to risk the embarrassment of needing this commercial, or they have a lot of ad money to throw around. Either way, it's all College Humor's fault. (Via AdRants.)
This is a totally well-intentioned campaign with a good message, but also WHAT? For starters, those girls would not be calling those tops "gay." That's like making a global warming PSA in which a woman wearing a hemp blouse blows aerosol cans out of the window of her Prius and being like "Come on, guys, with the aerosol already!" If you really want to get this particular message out there with any effect, fire Hilary Duff and get Chuck Lidell to give it. And have the PSA play on one of the radio stations in Grand Theft Auto IV. I'm a genius. I should be running Sarah Palin's campaign for President.
Nevertheless, Videogum totally supports the spirit of this PSA, which is why we will no longer describe gay things as being "so gay." We will refer to them as being "so Hilary Duff." I just changed my name to LiZING McGuire. Sarah Palin for President!
The Partnership For A Drug Free America has a new spokesthing: Patsy, the mom who tries her best but, well, just can't seem to talk to her kids about drugs in a way that works. The videos are shot as if they were made by Patsy, a sort of Michael Scott of moms, and posted as if they were her own vlogs:
I watched all the videos on Patsy's YouTube channel, and what I learned was that there actually might not be a cool way to talk to teens about drugs. I just want everyone in the world to see that video, so when I yell "Do you know what weed is?" in the general direction of one of my friends taking a shower, they'll get the joke.
Apparently in the 1980s, a doctor recruited Justine and Jason Bateman and Ted Danson to teach teenagers about sex and love in a series of PSAs. Street Carnage has a short clip today that piqued my interest enough to search YouTube, where the site Fast Hugs put up a whole series of clips in the old days of 2006. But this one about "Girl Scams" was my favorite: Jason Bateman talking about getting fed sex lines by girls, Justine playing the trustworthy older sister, and Ted Danson singing the most repeated pickup line of the '80s.
Technically, this STD-awareness ad from Belgium doesn't make sense in any kind of "useful information that could prevent STDs way," but it is funny (especially the twist at the end). And, um, while it's not as graphic as it seems like it's going to be at first, it's probably not really safe for work:
On the one hand, wow, Belgians are so much more open and cool about things than we puritanical Americans are! On the other hand, yuck! (Via Adrants.)
Cute Animal Suicide, Don't Do It• We're not even sure what Quercus is or why they're buying anti-global warming ads, but we support anti-global warming and we would hate to see so many cute animals commit suicide, which we didn't even know cute animals could do, but it's the worst. End it.
This is one of the strangest, creepiest PSAs I've ever seen. Saw's Tobin Bell for the American Red Cross on how they "want your blood":
I guess it's not enough that the movies are "about" "teaching" people to "appreciate their lives." Hey, if I were in any way involved in the making of the Saw franchise, I would want to somehow justify its 100% negative contribution to the world by linking it to a charity, too, but this is just odd. Especially at the end when he says "Remember, if it's Halloween, it must be Saw," which, aside from being awkward product promotion at the end of a PSA that's supposedly about saving lives, implies that we have to live with the Saw movies forever. The takeaway here is that the American Red Cross must be absolutely desperate for blood, so make an appointment today. Please don't tell them Saw sent you.
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