Just Say No

"Just Say No" was a television advertising campaign, part of the US "War on Drugs" and prevalent during the 1980s and early 1990s, to discourage children from engaging in recreational drug use by offering various ways of saying "no". Eventually, this also expanded the realm of "Just Say No" to violence, premarital sex, and any other vices that young people might try. The slogan was created and championed by former First Lady Nancy Reagan during her husband's presidency. [cite web | title =Mrs. Reagan's Crusade|publisher=Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation| url =http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/nancy/just_say_no.asp]

The campaign emerged from a National Institutes of Health–supported substance abuse prevention program pioneered in the 1970s by University of Houston Social Psychology Professor Dr. Richard I. Evans. Evans's social inoculation model encompassed "inoculating" students with skills to resist peer pressure and other social influences. The anti-drug movement was among the resistance skills recommended in response to low peer pressure, and Nancy Reagan's larger campaign proved to be a useful dissemination of this social inoculation strategy. [Evans, R.I. (in press). Just say no. In Breslow, L., Encyclopedia of Public Health (p. 1354). New York: Macmillan.]

"Just Say No" crossed over to the UK, where it was popularised by the BBC's 1986 "Drugwatch" campaign, which revolved around a heroin-addiction storyline in the popular children's TV drama serial "Grange Hill". The cast's cover of the original US campaign song, with an added rap, reached the UK top ten. [cite web
last =Malvern
first =Jack
authorlink =
coauthors =
title =Just say no
work =The Daily Summit
publisher =British Council
date =December 12, 2003
url =http://www.dailysummit.net/english/archives/2003/12/12/just_say_no.asp]

The campaign made its way into popular American culture when TV shows like "Diff'rent Strokes" and "Punky Brewster" produced episodes centered around the campaign. In 1987 La Toya Jackson became spokesperson for the campaign and recorded a song entitled "Just Say No" with British hit producers Stock/Aitken/Waterman.

The campaign drew some criticism for underestimating the drug use in America and reducing its solution to a catch phrase. [cite web
last =Elliott
first =Jeff
title =Just say nonsense - Nancy Reagan's drug education programs
work =Washington Monthly
publisher =
date =May, 1993
url =http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_n5_v25/ai_13786316/pg_4 ]

See also

* Winners Don't Use Drugs
* Above The Influence
* Drug Abuse Resistance Education

References