First prize: Death!
While passing through the roads of Dhaka one would find an attractive billboard installed by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) at the corner of some road junctions in the city. The message displayed on the billboard reads something like this:
"Take drugs and win the following prizes: First prize: Death, second prize..."
Not a bad idea for generating public awareness against drug addiction. But from the psychological point of view, the message may create negative motivation particularly in the minds of the younger people who might be passing through extreme frustration and become tired of his/her life and develop a tendency for committing suicide. They may be motivated to take drugs for killing themselves.
It may be mentioned here that in Agricultural Extension practices, a poster for motivating farmers on certain innovation is pre-tested to ascertain how the farmers react after perusing the content of the poster plus their ability to decode the meaning of the poster. Again in case of cartoon, the producers conduct psychological tests on sample child population to determine how the child audience reacts to the overall content of the cartoon.
So, I think, the psychological aspects of the DMP billboard should be reviewed. There is also legal ramifications of the said billboard.
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