In April 2024, Tan Chong Huat, Senior Partner and one of the founding members of RHTLaw Asia LLP, had just taken over as the new Chairman of Singapore’s National Council Against Drug Abuse (NCADA). As he began to settle into the role, he discovered that NCADA’s mission of combating drug abuse in Singapore was not an easy one.
There was a growing trend of youth abusing drugs before the age of 18, while global attitudes towards drugs were also changing. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime also noted in its World Drug Report 2023 that intense lobbying by drug producers and other interest groups, as well as the well-funded information and marketing campaigns conducted by these groups, were at play.
Eager to explore ways to combat online misinformation, Tan highlighted NCADA’s 2020 media campaign, ‘HIGH’—an interactive short film that earned the Best Immersive (360/VR) award at the Asian Academy Creative Awards. The campaign had successfully leveraged a plethora of platforms and engaged youths in conversations about drug use and abuse.
The Singapore Context
Attitudes towards drug abuse had become more permissive among youth in recent years. Singapore’s Institute of Mental Health reported in the 2022 Health and Lifestyle Survey that the mean age for the commencement of drug abuse in the country was 15.9 years. Just over 40 per cent of those who said they consumed drugs indicated that they had started taking drugs before they turned 18. The World Drug Report also noted that in Southeast Asia, methamphetamine (meth) was the key drug of concern.
NCADA had two main objectives underpinning the HIGH media campaign. First, to highlight that everyone had a choice where taking drugs was concerned and spur youths to make informed choices by addressing the factors driving drug abuse; and second, to spark discussions about the realities of drug addiction.
Also, NCADA had learnt to avoid subtle messaging after reviewing the results of an earlier campaign in 2018 entitled Feed Your Ambition (FYA). It had attempted then to encourage youths to pursue ‘natural highs’ as a way of fighting the temptation to abuse drugs. ‘Natural highs’ referred to feelings of happiness derived from non-substance means, such as physical exercise. NCADA had found that while the FYA campaign had penetrated the youth audience, it had failed to engage them.
The Strategy behind the HIGH Campaign
Fast forward to 2020, the HIGH campaign would be launched against a backdrop of increasing permissiveness across the globe. In the US, some states had begun to legalise the use of drugs. Closer to home, Thailand was also permitting cannabis to be sold, grown at home, and consumed for recreational purposes legally.
The target audience for the campaign was youth aged 16 to 29 – typically tertiary students who could travel overseas independently, and access social media and online content that carried misinformation. Therefore, the HIGH campaign was designed to challenge youth – through creative and nuanced conversational media and platforms – to critically consider the drug issue without adopting a preachy “Don’t Do Drugs” approach.
Key to the campaign was the interactive film at its centre. It deviated from the typical linear narrative structure of conventional films and was developed like a “choose-your-own-adventure film”. Almost like a role-playing game, viewers would make decisions on behalf of Nick, the protagonist, which would lead to different endings depending on whether they chose to let Nick do drugs or not in the film.
Creative agency Dentsu Singapore, which NCADA had appointed to conceptualise and deliver the campaign, decided to appoint acclaimed Singaporean film director Royston Tan to direct the film. He Shuming, the scriptwriter for HIGH, worked with the director to develop a script based on actual people they knew.
Said Tan, who was already known for his edgy 2003 Singaporean film titled ‘15’ which touched on themes of delinquency and drug use: “I do not want to lose another friend [to drugs]. I have already lost one. I don’t know if he is alive or dead or has just totally disappeared [because of his meth addiction].”
To better engage with the target audience, NCADA held film previews at institutes of higher learning. There, students used their phones to vote whenever the film progressed to a point where Nick had to make a decision before the story could continue. The option chosen would be the one that garnered the most votes.
A significant element of the campaign was the holding of Safe Zone Discussions (SZDs) after each film screening. As the name implied, these discussions were meant to let participants voice their experiences, thoughts, and concerns in a dedicated “safe” environment without disciplinary or legal recourse.
The Success of HIGH
The HIGH campaign generated a considerable volume of conversations and sharing on social media. NCADA found that students’ understanding of drug abuse issues was raised after attending the SZDs. While students at the Institute of Technical Education mainly discussed practical issues like how they could help friends or family members battle drug addiction, the polytechnic students were more concerned with the social impact of the legalisation of cannabis overseas. NCADA also produced an Engagement Package with card decks to encourage small group discussions on HIGH, while leveraging mainstream media such as The Straits Times, youth and lifestyle media such as SGAG, social media such as YouTube, and cinema advertising to amplify the campaign.
The HIGH campaign also proved effective in deterring youth from trying drugs. NCADA also noted that 65 percent of those who encountered an opportunity to take drugs turned it down, in contrast to 39 percent before the HIGH campaign was launched.
Going forward, NCADA believed that expanding its outreach to different target audiences, such as parents would require different strategies. The key issue for the agency was how it could broaden its reach and raise advocacy for the anti-drug message in an increasingly crowded media landscape.
This case study 'Singapore’s National Council Against Drug Abuse: Bringing Across the Message that “Every High Ends in a Low”’ was written by Tracy Loh, Senior Lecturer of Communication Management, Lee Kong Chian School of Business and Thomas Lim of Centre for Management Practice (CMP) at the Singapore Management University. To read it in full, please visit the CMP website by clicking here.