An Idea?



An idea for an anti-drug ad campaign (something like the old anti-tobacco ad campaign which was successful).
  • Ads would be mobile-acccessible and some ad content would be downloadable via smart phone menus.

    (A possibility for an ad: an image representing the drug trade in some way + the caption "Don't give them your money -- or your help" ["your help" because of the fact that teens are used sometimes to ferry drugs]. This could be followed by pictures of/statistics on young people who have helped the drug trade and what has happened to them, graphical statistics of increasing deaths along U.S. Mexican border, and then links to anti-drug rap and also to information about internships/career exploration summer programs for teens.)

  • It would be neat if cell phone users could download ring tones to go with the ads too & share these with friends.
  • And finally it would be neat if young people could get involved in online discussion and/or create open source apps for their phones (not that most will get jobs in high tech later but they can always sell smartphones).
(I've contacted the ad council on this but no luck so far.)

U.S. Cell Phone Market Penetration

Biggest Player in the U.S. Smartphone Market
According to thecellphonejunkie.com/2011/12/14/npd-android-dominating-ios-solid-blackberry-plummeting/ the major players are Google's Android operating system and Apple's iPhone which runs on Apple. Android actually has almost half of the smartphone market. These two are only slightly more popular with the young than with other groups. RIM's blackberry operating system phones have lost market share, according to the cellphonejunkie, because of touch access and larger screen sizes on the others, but the Blackberry 7 may change that.
Smartphone penetration among various groups in the U.S.
Overall as of fall, 2011, about 44% of U.S. cellphone users owned smartphones, including about 40% of teens aged 12 to 17, about 53% of young adults aged 18 to 24, and about 62% of young adults aged 25 to 34. See: www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2011/12/15/smartphone-penetration-explodes-in-2011-iphone-takes-top-spot/ .
Smartphone Penetration Skyrocketing in the U.S.
Smartphone penetration rates in the U.S. have increased from 28% in fall, 2010. For more on this see blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/generation-app-62-of-mobile-users-25-34-own-smartphones/, and blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/mobile-snapshot-smartphones-now-28-of-u-s-cellphone-market/.
Generation Text?
extra.shu.ac.uk/daol/articles/v1/n1/a3/thurlow2002003-05.html. Crispin Thurlow's "Generation Txt." (A must read. Does text messaging help the young develop language skills? Well they certainly become creative at compressing what they want to say -- if anything -- into a short message, perhaps. But where does language end?)

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Ad Partners and Ring Tones?

I do personally think that cell phone providers/software creators  should carry these; they could partner with the gov. to carry these.
(For examples of the old anti-smoking campaign, see www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/prints/anti-smoking-initiative-cigarette-break-11075405/; for info. about its success, see:
www.enotes.com/public-health-encyclopedia/tobacco-control ; and the fight against smoking continues; see: www.tobaccofreekids.org/press_releases/post/id_0495.
My personal take for a ring tone might be something from the Four Tops "Keeper of the Castle" [lyrics at: www.lyricstime.com/four-tops-keeper-of-the-castle-lyrics.html] but of course you would need to get permission). Another song to use with statistics -- not so much as a ring tone is: "It's Mathematics" www.lyrics.net.ua/lyrics/mos_def/black_on_both_sides/mathematics.html (forget Mos Def's politics, which are strange; this is a great song). Finally there is Tracy Chapman whose "Bang, Bang, Bang" poemhunter.com/song/bang-bang-bang/ is anti-drug, but I like "Bridges," poemhunter.com/song/bridges/ and "Crossroads 2," http://poemhunter.com/song/crossroads-2/ . There's also the lyrics to the rap song for young people, "It's o.k. to say 'no' to drugs," but I can't find it on the web. And there is Anne Murray's "A Little Good News," www.lyricsdepot.com/anne-murray/little-good-news.html , a country song where "nobody robbed a liquor store," "nobody died in vain," etc.
For some other slightly less relevant (but nice) upbeat lyrics for ringtones, there is "TFR" or The Runaway Five's jazz renditions of video games, www.therunawayfive.com/live/ (see also rhona-mae-arca.suite101.com/earth-wind--fire-tribute-by-the-runaway-five-review-a400324 where I learned of them); and I do love Julie Andrews, "My Favorite Things" www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/thesoundofmusic/myfavoritethings.htm; there is also Wolfman Jack's "Ain't Never Seen a White Man," www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWgY4JIkenI; and folk singer Mary Hopkin's "International," www.youtube.com/watch?v=U54OhQHQadc. These at least express the singers' opinions, of course. So these have to be offered, not forced. (I wanted "No Sugar Tonight," but not quite the lyrics present, no rooms filled with smoke, that's not my idea of "Mother Nature" new or old).

Paths to the Future?

Young people are consumers of technology but don't always get to shape the technology they consume; here's a guide to "Technology Literacy" (www.southerncrossreview.org/3/alliance.html) which points out that young people need to come to understand how technology is shaped for particular uses, and not just use it "passively." Finishing high school is a key, and an internship in high school a great idea too, whether or not youth opt for college; see resourcesforthenearse.tripod.com/Internship_Info/InternshipInfo.html for internship information. Today with everyone going to college there are some who say college is not the path to success; they are advocating instead things that are not done by everyone, like starting a business but I say don't do that till you've had some work experience, at least in most cases; see money.msn.com/family-money/is-college-still-the-path-to-success-usnews.aspx?OCID=eml_msnnl_6004&REFCD=emmsnnl_6004. (As noted here, everyone goes to college these days -- except primarily those who do not finish high school -- ; thus college cannot give the edge it used to as it no longer makes anyone "standout", not in and of itself. The question is, does having only high school which is all that is required for many jobs, make you less valuable than a college grad? If not you don't need college, but I'm asking a ? not deciding finally. Another note: the high school dropout rate is high, IMO, in places where jobs may be scarce for example in Compton, California, a suburb of Los Angeles with lots of poverty, single parent families, think it's mixed racially. So can internships target youth in these areas? Would that increase their chances of graduation? ) Check out some ideas for young people to become more active in technology, below:

Some Resources I Put Online



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