Rachael Leigh Cook Recreates Classic Anti-Drug PSA
Image via YouTube
Recently, famed actress Rachael Leigh Cook recreated the “This is Your Brain on Drugs” public service announcement from the 1990s. The original video featured a young Cook smashing delicate glassware and plates in a kitchen with a cast iron skillet as a representation of substance abuse. On April 20, Cook made a return appearance in a new video that emulates the original, but instead makes a poignant point about current drug policy.
For those who haven’t seen the classic PSA, the commercial features an egg that she smashes with a frying pan, accompanied by the famous phrase “this is your brain on drugs.” By the end of the commercial, Cook has smashed up everything in the kitchen. Due to the absurdly dramatic nature of the PSA, the commercial immediately gained cult fame.
Green Point Creative are responsible for recreating the ad, which was commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance, and the title “This is Your Brain on Drug Policy.” With Cook revisiting her original role, the ad targets how the “War on Drugs” is statistically more harmful towards minorities who are caught in possession of certain substances (whether cannabis or otherwise). The video also stars a white egg, representing a white individual who is never caught in possession of any substances, and a brown egg, who is illustrated as a minority who is charged with possession, and the negative life events that follow afterward. The video ends with a powerful message about how the “War on Drugs” benefits no one. “The ‘War on Drugs’ is ruining people’s lives,” Cook says to the camera. “It fuels mass incarceration. It targets people of color in greater numbers than their white counterparts. It cripples communities. It costs billions, and it doesn’t work.”
With the added return of Cook in her role to oppose the message she originally made in the ’90s, the video effectively criticizes what the “War on Drugs” actually does. As the Drug Policy Alliance states: “A War on Drugs is a War on People.”
