Explain the Pain: Natalie Straw
Natalie Straw
COM 416
2/15/23
LEAP 1 Essay: REVISED
For my propaganda project, I found an interesting campaign called “Explain the Pain” on dosomething.org, centering around sharing resources where young people can get more information on pain medicine abuse. This campaign immediately grabbed my attention because of the current opioid epidemic, which is greatly affecting our society, especially teenagers and young adults. Despite the opioid epidemic being more prevalent than ever in America, so many people are still unaware of the dangers of experimenting with pills. According to the US Department of Human and Health Services, “more than 760,000 people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose. Nearly 75% of drug overdose deaths in 2020 involved an opioid.” Teenagers are becoming more susceptible to trying pain medication because of how glamorized it is, and how easily available it is. Not only is abusing pain medicine dangerous but there are also other risks involved because of the sudden rise of lacing fentanyl. Pills have become normalized to use recreationally and share with friends.
My main goal for this project was to create memes that would encourage youth to not want to try pain pills, specifically opioids, while also highlighting how addictive they are. I chose to use memes as propaganda because of how popular and easy to understand they are. I created all five of my memes on imgflip.com. Memes are easier to understand through examples, but simply put a meme template can be used to convey thoughts or feelings in just a couple of sentences that the audience is able to understand given the context of the image. While at first memes were just recognizable silly internet jokes, they have developed a deeper meaning as the years have passed. Since memes are simple and easy to understand, they can communicate messages to their audience that could influence us without even realizing it. A lot of memes on the internet make a joke out of substance abuse and drugs, but if more and more memes were created highlighting the dangers of opioids, I think there would be a greater understanding that they aren’t fun and games.
The target audience for my memes would be young adults, like college students, and teenagers. I think these age groups are being targeted the most by the opioid epidemic, they are the ones being influenced to try opioids for fun and are not informed about how dangerous they can be. I wanted to create memes that would address one of the main components of propaganda: appealing to the hopes, dreams, and fears of the audience- specifically their fears. The humor of the memes makes it a little light-hearted but still gets the point across that they are dangerous and addictive. The meme templates I used, such as the batman one, are supposed to highlight a common argument people make, that pills aid our pain and are not addictive. Batman is slapping the guy across the face saying “that’s what they want you to think!”. This is supposed to make the audience reflect and think about how they cannot trust everything they have been told about opioids. The meme of the man saying “change my mind” is highlighting how easily habit-forming opioids are. These meme templates have been used thousands of times to convey other messages, but I noticed from my personal experience on Twitter that the “change my mind” meme often sparks conversations. This would be beneficial to my audience because then they could have a discussion about opioids and hear different perspectives.
My other goal with my propaganda was to respond to the audience’s basic needs. Fitting in with society is extremely important to young people, as we crave connection. This is why it’s easy for teens and young adults to fall into the trap of using and abusing pills because they see everyone around them doing it, and want to do the same. The memes I created emphasize that doing drugs is not cool or fun and can lead to death or a lifetime of addiction, and to not follow the trend of doing what everyone else is. Besides catering to the audience’s needs, I also wanted to use my propaganda to inform young people about the dangers of opioids while also persuading them to not try pills. There is not enough space in such a small image to write out facts, but I chose to keep mentioning that they are addictive, dangerous, and not for experimentation. Our reading “Intersection of Entertainment” states that “propaganda is not merely a type of persuasion, it is used to inform, entertain, and persuade.” Memes are the perfect way to convey a persuasive message in an entertaining format. It is subconsciously influencing people because it could affect how one views things without even realizing it. I found the Bernie SandSanderse template to be perfect for this kind of persuasion. In a way, it is a little political because it’s Bernie, and everyone that has seen his campaign understands the meme of “I am once again asking for you…”. Although it is seen as a lighthearted meme the message is clear and strong.
Ultimately, this assignment opened my eyes to how persuasive propaganda can be, and how it is surrounding us without even realizing it. I think this can be seen as a positive because then the audience can be swayed and make changes subconsciously. If social media users constantly saw memes exposing the dark side of drugs and opioid addiction, they might not want to try pills as much as if they were to constantly view memes making pills seem fun and silly and not a big deal. I believe that the memes I created would be easy for anyone to understand and while they are lighthearted and silly, they are still touching on an important topic and have the potential to influence the audience to not want to try pills.
Works Cited
All memes were created through imgflip.com
US Department of Human and Health Services. “Opioid Facts and Statistics.” HHS.gov, 16 December 2022, https://www.hhs.gov/opioids/statistics/index.html. Accessed 16 February 2023.
