The Nightwatch Program, Inc. - Crime Prevention At Its Best

Scooby Doo Blunders - A Call to Action
By Harvey Weiss of National Inhalents Prevention Coalition

What in the world were they thinking? Reports are coming into the NIPC that the new Warner Brothers', PG rated, Scooby Doo movie, "Scooby-Doo 2, Monsters Unleashed," has a scene with Shaggy huffing nitrous oxide from a whipped cream can for "fun" (one Mom told me she saw this in the movie's trailer on a Saturday morning during a cartoon TV show, see link
below). On March 26th, the Saint Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press newspaper reported ".but they still can't resist having Shaggy huff spray-can fumes ."

See the trailer and tell me what you think. Go to this site and click on "Under the Weather": http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1808412521&cf=trailer

Tell you the truth - I am speechless! I have not seen the movie (nor had I intended to, up to now) so I cannot directly comment. In the past when something like this happened (usually a TV commercial), we would hold off on a call to action until we had actually seen the offensive piece. This time it is different. This is something we must address now.

Many of you have taken an activist role when companies have run nitrous or helium sniffing ads - this time it is more critical than ever to get involved and be heard. Just think about the target audience for this PG rated movie and the message that is going out to kids - it is cute, funny and ok to huff! In the last six weeks there were six youngsters who died after huffing - that's not ok or cute.

We must have our concerns heard to keep our youth safe. If we work toward greater awareness with combined voices, people who create movies and advertisements will finally understand that there is nothing funny or cute about huffing.

What can we do? In partnership with the Compressed Gas Association http://www.cganet.com the NIPC believes that the immediate goal is to raise awareness about our concerns and the implications of the movie's message and about the dangers of inhalant use in general. We should urge Warner
Brothers to remove or edit this scene before it goes to DVD and video and provide inhalant prevention educational materials at theaters and with future DVD's and videos. If a specific brand of canned whipping cream can be observed in the movie then the manufacturer may have paid for this product placement. If this is the case, the manufacturer should be called to task for their approval of using their product this way or for not paying attention to how their product is being used. Let's hope no tragedies occur as a result of this scene.

We urge you write, call and email all parties involved to express your concerns - get friends and colleagues to do the same. Contact local and especially national media outlets and let them know your concerns and encourage them to do stories. Although I have pointed a finger at certain monoliths, our efforts should not be about blame - but about educating. Did the folks who were involved in this movie intend to do something wrong or inappropriate? I think not. This is an opportunity to educate many communities and publics about the dangers of inhalant use. As we all know, inhalants are not on the top of the awareness list, except during NIPAW or after a tragic death. Maybe this is not Warner Brother's fault but rather mine or ours for not pushing hard enough (I don't hear about coke use in PG rated movies). This is a particularly good time for an inhalant education effort as a follow-up to National Inhalants & Poisons Awareness Week (NIPAW). Our efforts should be to advance people's understanding about the dangers of inhalant use so they are recognized as a broad public health issue.