The "Stoner Sloth" campaign has been a rolled gold (or should that be joint?) disaster for the NSW Government. It's spawned several online parodies and since everyone's yucking it up over the surreal ads their anti-drugs message seems to have been well and truly lost.
Secret sources from deep inside Macquarie Street tell me that the Stoner Sloth social media yuckfest has resulted in the scotching of a whole series of planned spinoffs.
These included:
A "Keep Australia Beautiful" style promo starring a rubbish throwing feline called Litter Kitty.
A series of positive body image messages aimed at young men featuring Longer Langur the Penis Extension Monkey.
The self-destructive misadventures of a marsupial adrenaline junky called Thrillby Bilby.
Hard hitting anti-binge drinking ads showing a herbivore overdoing it at his local watering hole. His name: Will Da Beast (otherwise known as Spu Gnu).
An STD awareness campaign based on the brazen bed-hopping of a randy rodent called Root Rat.
Sadly, none of these social awareness epics will see the light of day. But the advertising firms behind them will of course still be paid. Typical! More tax dollars down the drain ...
But back to the Stoner Sloth campaign: While the reputation of the creative team behind it has taken a battering, they're unlikely to suffer any long term consequences.
The same cannot be said of the poor sloth who starred in the series. Countless tales of celebrity meltdown are testament to the deleterious effects of instant, fleeting fame on the human psyche. But what if the subject is an animal (or "non-human person" as the more PC like to say)?
By jetting to the big smoke and taking on the challenging role the hirsute thespian was already out on a limb. And if he wasn't off his tree during filming (as any true method actor would have been) he almost certainly is now due to all the stress!
As we all know, dope is a gateway drug. He'll be Smacked Out Sloth eventually. Death by overdose is sure to be the final, tragic outcome. But it won't be over quickly like what happened to Knut. Given his species' characteristic slowness, his journey toward the final curtain is sure to be an excruciatingly drawn out one.
How terribly, awfully, horribly ... gradually ...eventually ... finally ... sad. Yet all the while we humans will be laughing at him online!
Man's inhumanity to man is appalling enough. But his inhumanity to sloth is far, far worse.
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