Steroids and Kids

There is a commercial that airs during games to prevent kids from getting into steroids. They show a clay statue that crumbles into pieces - a picture of what will happen to you if you ever use steroids. (Very similar to the famous anti-drug commercial with the fried egg: "This your brain, this is your brain on drugs.") The message is: don't use steroids or your body will fall apart and you may die.

There are two problems with this commercial. First, where are all the athletes that are dying from steroid use? We have the Lyle Alzado case, but not many others. The problem here is, at the moment, the ratio of steroid users to people dying from steroids is very high. In fact, that is why so many people use steroids in the first place. The risk for death is extremely low. All these people who make these commercials scaring kids out of steroids would probably get more kids scared if what they claimed were actually true. But the evidence is not there. It is funny though; if the evidence were there - if steroid users were dying - fewer athletes would use steroids because of the risk, and they wouldn't need these commercials. I guess that make the commercial useless.

The second problem is the reasoning. It is a problem very typical of American culture. If you want kids to stray from steroids, make the motivation not about health, make the motivation about morality. Tell kids to not do steroids because it is WRONG. Tell kids to not do steroids because it is CHEATING. Not because their body will fail. This is the problem. People are not motivated by morality. Ask a kid why he will not do drugs. He will tell you they are bad for his body, or because he wants to be a doctor. They will not say, "Because they are against the law," or "because I want to be a good citizen."

But on the positive, the people who make the commercials can feel good about themselves that they tried.