Australian Govt Tries to Distance Itself from Its Laughably Bad Anti-Pot “Stoner Sloth” Ads

Sometimes in the so-called war against drugs, bureaucrats who have a vested interest in protecting megacorporate financial interests (like, say, that of big pharmaceutical companies for example) do something that’s so completely ridiculous, it actually has the opposite effect and backfires. Big time.

Meet “Stoner Sloth,” tagline “You’re worse on weed,” conceived by New South Wales’ National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre:

Mashable wrote to the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) which confirmed that Stoner Sloth is indeed and Australian government creation to fight marijuana use in a statement:

“The Stoner Sloth public awareness campaign has been designed to encourage positive behaviours in young people before bad habits start, and motivate discontinued use of cannabis before they become dependent,” according to a DPC spokesperson.

You know it’s bad when, at first, people weren’t even sure if this was real or a joke.

It didn’t take long for Stoner Sloth to go viral, but not for the reasons the New South Wales government had hoped. Stoner Sloth is now a mix of hero and laughing stock of the internet.

First came the Tweets:

Move over Life Education Van, #stonersloth is now officially the worst, and most hilarious anti-drug campaign ever. #HipOldGuysMarketing

— Dan Schmidt (@SkaSchmidt) December 18, 2015

I think the people who made #stonersloth vastly underestimate the public’s hero-worship of sloths.

— Madeleine Baud (@HeyBaudelaire) December 19, 2015

Australia is in the world’s top 5 Cocaine, Ecstasy, Amphetamines & Opioids using countries. And they went all grandma on weed #StonerSloth — Thierry Rouhana (@ThierryRouhana) December 18, 2015

Not one thing has made me want to blaze up as much as #stonersloth has. Big grinny hugs to the Bairdy one. — Elliot V. Schoemaker (@evs) December 18, 2015

The government messed up with #stonersloth – people like sloths. They should’ve used a different slow, disliked creature: the politician. — Benjamin Lawrence (@Thoriendal) December 21, 2015

“Not one thing has made me want to blaze up as much as #stonersloth has.” https://t.co/oyHqaUoEEC — 420 College (@420_college) December 21, 2015

If drugs really could turn me into an anthropomorphic #stonersloth I’d take them every day. — The Dan Collins Band (@dancollinsband) December 21, 2015

#StonerSloth has got to be the least effective anti-drug campaign I have ever seen. Who doesn’t want to be a sloth? — Jemma (@jgiovannucci) December 18, 2015

Whoever came up with the #stonersloth campaign was on something worse than weed. ? — Galen Irias (@galenirias) December 18, 2015

How NSW govt feels after #stonersloth pic.twitter.com/1swloD1E0s — Jon Piccini (@JonPiccini) December 19, 2015

Then, the parodies:

This one features Prime Minister Tony Abott:

Then the bad press coverage: 

#StonerSloth anti-drug campaign from @mikebairdMP Government prompts LOLs online https://t.co/kBcvhuFNvc pic.twitter.com/VvgMvhvbwu — ABC News (@abcnews) December 19, 2015

And then, even the New South Wales Premier Mike Baird felt the need to reply:

“It was a public relations stunt gone wrong,” said Baird. “We simply misjudged. Our focus groups had said that teens would be wild for the sloth. We thought we were building on a whole lot of pro-sloth momentum in popular culture right now. Unfortunately the information we received appears to have been mistaken and on further review, clearly sarcastic. Just saw the #StonerSloth ads. Not sure where NSW Gov’s ad guys found Chewbaccas siblings, but those videos are… Quite something. — Mike Baird (@mikebairdMP) December 19, 2015

You do have to wonder what the marketing meeting was like where these bureaucrats and advertising people not only conceived of Stoner Sloth, but agreed it was a good idea, and then ran with it.

It begs the question: were they stoned? If so, they are definitely “worse on weed”.