Have you seen the recent 'above the influence' commercial? The one with a young girl passed out in a chair at a party... her peers are drawing on her face and playing with her like she is a puppet on a string.... I saw it a few times while catching parts of the MTV video music awards this weekend.
I understand that intended purpose of the commercial is to make the girl who is passed out to be the dummy. The message at the end says..."if you are not in control... who is" or something like that.
I guess it works on one level. But after see the commercial a few times I got to thinking about what jerks the friends were. Who lets a girl drink herself into oblivion and not only leaves her passed on their couch, but draws on and makes fun of the girl while she is unconscious.
Where is the friend, who should be watching out for her? Where is the friend calling 911 to make sure that the girl is suffering from alcohol poisoning? Where is the friend who helps her get home?
In all my years of partying... I never once was treated like that, nor did I treat anyone else like that. In addition, I never saw anyone treating anyone like that.
What kind of message does that send to young people? No wonder there are so many problems with teenagers today... no one feels or takes the responsibility for their friends. So many deaths could be avoided, not only from alcohol, drugs and other substances but from school shootings, rapes and other peer on peer crimes.
Aren't we supposed to teach our children to stand up for what they know to be right. To defend the victim and fight the bully? There is a difference between enabling and looking out for someone, and we need to start teaching our kids just what kind of behavior we expect from them.
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