Meth Im On It

On November 18, 2019, Governor Kristi Noem went live on Facebook to announce the campaign's launch5. In the announcement video, which picked up over 12,000 views in a single day, Noem described the state's meth epidemic as "growing at an alarming rate" and urged citizens to "get on it"3. She said the tagline was meant to signal "solutions and hope" and that "every one of us in South Dakota can partner to be on meth"6. The governor nearly laughed while delivering the line.

Broadhead Co. had been paid just under $449,000 by the state's Department of Social Services during 2019, with a total contract ceiling of $1.4 million running through May 20202. Wayne Carlson, Broadhead's VP of brand strategy, said the campaign was a "passion project" built around South Dakota's state pride2. Creative director Walt Burns explained they wanted real South Dakotans delivering a message that "we all need to be on it"2.

Behind the jokes sat a genuine public health crisis. Eighty-three percent of South Dakota's 2019 court admissions for controlled substances involved meth1. Between 2014 and 2018, the number of people seeking meth addiction treatment in the state doubled3. Teenagers ages 12 to 17 in South Dakota reported using meth at twice the national average1. In Rapid City alone, drug arrests hit an all-time high of 1,546 in 2018 for a city of about 75,0001.

Governor Noem defended the campaign on Twitter, writing "Hey Twitter, the whole point of this ad campaign is to raise awareness. So I think that's working"4. She later called it "a bold, innovative effort like the nation has never before seen"7. Social Services Secretary Laurie Gill described the campaign as "inclusive and empowering" and argued the attention was worthwhile2.

Not everyone in South Dakota agreed. Dr. John Korkow, an addiction studies professor at the University of South Dakota, called the campaign "the most ridiculous, unprofessional waste of money" and said he "literally wondered if a 10-year-old had written" it1. UC Berkeley marketing professor Bill Pearce described the tagline as "poor strategy and poor execution"7. Rapid City police officer Brendyn Medina, who noted that finding meth during interactions had gone from noteworthy to "commonplace," acknowledged the severity of the crisis the campaign was trying to address1.

The state's 2020 budget backed the awareness push with $1 million for meth treatment services and over $730,000 for school-based prevention programming2. Addiction treatment professionals offered mixed reviews. Carol Regier, director of Keystone Treatment Center in Canton, South Dakota, called it "very good that the state is going to take some action"7. Others felt that engaging the whole community was the right approach even if the execution invited mockery7.

The campaign website onmeth.com originally offered a directory of treatment centers and support groups for drug addiction7, though the domain has since lapsed and been taken over by unrelated content.