Just Say No campaign
Identification A slogan of the 1980’s war on drugs
popularized by First Lady Nancy Reagan
This slogan typifies the Reagan-era zero tolerance approach
to curbing illegal drug use. It soon became a punch line to
jokes and came to signify the impotence of the government in
dealing with illicit narcotics.
It is common for the U.S. government to declare war
on society’s great ailments, such as in the War on
Poverty, the War on Hunger, and the War on Terror.
For its heavy reliance on the mass media and its
length on the public agenda, no government “war”
was as prominent in the 1980’s as the War on Drugs.
Every war has its slogans, whether it is a message
carried by the president himself—such as Lyndon
Johnson’s March, 1964, speech declaring a war on
poverty or George W. Bush’s 2002 State of the Union
address defining the “axis of evil”—or a message car-
ried by an executive staff member or spokesperson.
In the case of the War on Drugs, the effort’s message
was pushed most heavily by First Lady Nancy Reagan
and most famously took the form of the Just Say No
campaign.
The War on Drugs Two major camps of scholars ex-
ist involving the use of illegal and illicit drugs. The
first camp believes that the flow of illegal drugs
can never be completely stopped, or even slowed
enough to justify devoting significant resources to it.
The second camp, in marked contrast, advocates ex-
pending finite government manpower and money
on slowing illegal drug trafficking. The War on
Drugs and its Just Say No campaign presupposed
that the drug war was a war worth fighting—in other
words, that it was winnable.
Though federal action to combat drugs predates
the 1980’s, it was not until the 1980 election of con-
servative Ronald Reagan that the movement really
gained a head of steam. Countering drug use can
take one of two forms: efforts to stop drug supply or
efforts to stop drug demand. Supply reduction takes
the form of contraband interdiction and border se-
curity. Some strategies to slow drug consumption ex-
clusively focus on things such as the breaking up of
drug cartels and the destruction of outlaw crops. De-
mand reduction is trickier, taking the form of educa-
tion initiatives and public awareness campaigns.
The Reagans, both Ronald and Nancy, popular-
ized their commitment to zero tolerance for illegal
drug use with the Just Say No campaign. The idea be-
hind the campaign was the recognition that both ad-
dictive and nonaddictive drug use is a willful act—
an argument not without controversy—that can be
curbed through a proper education program. The
reasoning was that if the government employed pop-
ular figures such as singers or actors to address the
mass public on the dangers of drugs, then people
would choose to not use them. To target users and
potential users alike, young actors such as Drew
Barrymore (who later wrote a book on her child-
hood drug problems) championed the benefits of a
drugfree lifestyle to youths. Some television shows
picked up the president and First Lady’s antidrug
torch by using Just Say No as an episode theme, and a
popular song was even recorded by one of the lesser-
known siblings of Michael Jackson.The Demise of a Slogan Nearly as soon as the Office
of the First Lady introduced the Just Say No slogan,
the initiative’s rhetoric received criticism as being too
simplistic. For example, the slogan’s impact likely is
reduced as a child ages. A one-size-fits-all approach to
drug education, like a single-sized article of clothing,
is more often seen as a one-size-fits-none approach.
Beyond the issue of the target audience’s age, there
was the question of the illegal substance to which “no”
was being said. Was it regarding marijuana, the drug
touted as the gateway drug to harder and more dan-
gerous drugs, or was the slogan indeed telling its audi-
ence to shun crack cocaine and heroin? Whatever the
case, the slogan was criticized as inadequate in ad-
dressing the abuse of legal substances. Just Say No
quickly became the punch line of choice for standup
comedians and T-shirt designers.
Some of the pop culture infamy of the slogan is at-
tributable to its kitschy, funny quality, but some of its
fame is a direct result of its ineptitude. A child who
tempted to try out his or her parents’ prescription
drugs or to experiment with household cleaners is ill
counseled by Just Say No. What are the ill effects?
What are the health risks? Children wondering why
they should Just Say No received little in reply to their
curiosities unless they actively sought the answer from
adults. Public service announcements of the 1980’s
presupposed a general understanding among citi-
zens about why one should not engage in the im-
proper use of drugs, be they legal or illegal, quite a
supposition when kids are included in the mix.558 Just Say No campaign The Eighties in America