During the summer in Canada, two young people died after taking party drugs at the VELD Music Festival. More recently, seized ecstasy pills were found to contain methamphetamine. The urban myth about MDMA is that it is relatively harmless. So Toronto Crime Stoppers asked its agency, DDB Canada, to create an awareness campaign highlighting the harmful ingredients that find their way into MDMA (ecstasy or Molly). DDB Canada did so pro bono.

“MDMA pills don’t come with a list of ingredients and since they can be cut with anything from LSD to caffeine, users can never be certain of what they are getting,” Sean Sportun, vice chair, Toronto Crime Stoppers, noted.

The tricky part was getting that young users to receive and absorb that message. To cut through the resistance that didactic PSAs often meet with the campaign’s 15 and 25 years old target market, DDB created a cooking show parody instead. In Cookin’ with Molly, a drug lab “chef” shares his recipe for Molly laced with methamphetamine, bath salts and other nasties.

The campaign was launched at a Toronto Police news conference to commemorate Crime Stoppers month.

The video is currently running online and is supported by preroll, newspaper and transit shelter ads, out of home advertising, and a social media outreach program.

The creative encourages consumers to explore the Cooking with Molly website, which offers additional content to watch and share. 

“These party-type drugs have been a growing concern, and Toronto Crime Stoppers wanted to tackle this head on without being heavy-handed, so the cooking show format is intended to be tongue-in-cheek,” Craig Ferguson, senior art director, DDB Canada Toronto, explained.

“At the same time, this creative still allows us to educate people on the harmful, hidden ingredients found in MDMA which was our key objective.”

Media planning services for this campaign were donated by OMD Canada.  The creative will be in-field from January 9 through to the end of February 2015.