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Facebook profile chronicles effects of drug use—sort of

To quote Mr. Mackey, "Drugs are bad... M'kay." 

 

Jordan Valinsky

Internet Culture

Posted on Jan 5, 2012   Updated on Jun 2, 2021, 11:05 pm CDT

We know that your brain on drugs can be equated to scrambling eggs, but a new PSA campaign has found a way to update that message in your Facebook News Feed.

The Israel Anti-Drug Authority (again, those clever Israelis!) created a fictional character using Facebook’s new Timeline profile format as a way to compare his life when he was on and off drugs.

The slick Facebook profile of “Adam Barak” shows pictures of him on the left side as a drug-fueled rager who trolls basketball courts for a lighter, contrasted on the right side with shots of his boring, sober life.

But it’s not as clever as intended. The juxtaposition of pictures doesn’t make much sense, given that Facebook’s Timeline is intended to be chronological—not split up via by left and right side. So, while Adam was giggling loudly at an Israeli romantic comedy, just a day later he was sitting outside some store, staring longingly.

There’s one other glaring issue: The Israel Anti-Drug Authority’s “user” violates Facebook’s rule against fake profiles, since the Timeline format hasn’t rolled out to brand pages.

Oh well! At least we know that drug-fueled rampages can lead to a messy work environment

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*First Published: Jan 5, 2012, 3:40 pm CST