The Marketing of Molly

The Marketing of Molly

Nov 07

By Chad Davidson

JOE CAMEL ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN VIOLATES FEDERAL LAW, FTC SAYS
Agency Charges R.J. Reynolds With Causing Substantial Injury to the Health and Safety of Children and Adolescents Under 18

The Joe Camel advertising campaign violates federal law, the Federal Trade Commission charged today. The campaign, which the FTC alleges was successful in appealing to many children and adolescents under 18, induced many young people to begin smoking or to continue smoking cigarettes and as a result caused significant injury to their health and safety. –Federal Trade Commission, May 28th 1997


While the advertising group for Joe Camel ended up losing their case and, in doing so, the ability to market to kids the way they wanted, the same cannot be said for advertisers of the Class A psychoactive drug called Ecstasy or “Molly”. But who on earth would market a drug like this? Look no further than Video Music Award shows and Teen Choice Award stages.

Multiple performances at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards show by artists Kanye West and Miley Cyrus had to be edited because of references to the methamphetamine-based drug. Miley’s performance included a song that had just been chosen as the Teen Choice Award “Song of the Summer.” This of course would be Miley Cyrus’ 2013 hit song “We Can’t Stop”. While her performance at the show was not only sexually provocative and disturbing, the multiple drug references in the “Song of the Summer” are nothing less than irresponsible and pathetic (enough to make MTV edit them out). The once famous child star of Disney’s “Hannah Montana” is now singing about “Dancing with Molly (Ecstasy)” and “Tryin to get a line (Cocaine) in the bathroom.” Yes that is right, these are actual lines from the song that was chosen as “The Song of the Summer” by teens. Miley not only sings about using illicit drugs, she also declares:

“You can Google me and you know what I’m up to–you know what the lyric is saying.” –Miley Cyrus

And if this weren’t enough, she wins awards… from teenagers! Don’t worry though, after Miley was caught lying about what the lyric meant concerning the “Dancing with Molly” line, she stated:

“It depends who’s doing what. If you’re aged ten [the lyric is] ‘Miley,’ if you know what I’m talking about then you know.” –Miley Cyrus

So according to Miley, as long as you are under 10 you won’t know the reference so it is ok to sing it. She went on trying to excuse her and her management team of lying by saying, “I just wanted it to be played on the radio and they’ve already had to edit it so much.” So young kids who have been watching her for years and look up to her are just a Google search away from seeing that this is what she is all about. Dancing with Molly and doing lines in the bathroom. I don’t even want to know what was left on the cutting room floor if this is the end product that she came up with for radio.

Sadly, Miley isn’t the first Teen Choice Nominee to reference ecstasy. Award winning HipHop artist Rihanna was nominated for Best Choice R&B/HipHop Award for her song “Diamonds”. In the song, she sings “Palms rise to the universe as we moonshine and Molly.” Kanye West was nominated at the 2013 Teen Choice Awards for the Choice Hip/Hop/Rap Artist losing to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. In West’s song “Mercy” not only does he sing of weeping, mourning and gnashing of teeth (a reference to hell in the New Testament), but also of a girl who is “gone off that Molly.” Madonna, who was seen wearing a shirt with her new album’s title “MDNA” (a clear play on Molly’s medical acronym MDMA) before 150,000 Electric Dance Music (EDM) fans at Miami’s Ultra Music Festival, asked the audience the question, “How many people in this crowd have seen MOLLY?” With these megastars selling out stadiums and selling millions of albums with these references on them, just what kind of an effect is this having on young people?

According to Medical News Today:

“The 2010 MTF survey shows a significant rise in the number of teenagers who say they use Ecstasy (or MDMA).”

The study shows that 8th grade users of the drug increased by almost 400% from 2009 to 2010. This is a startling number when we consider that suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people ages 10-24. And tragically, suicide attempts among ecstasy users is 9 times greater than adolescents with no history of drug use, and almost double that of adolescents who had used other illicit drugs only. (Source: National Center for Biotechnology Info, also reported by Drugfreeworld.org)

Emergency room incidents have “skyrocketed more that 1,200% since ecstasy became the club drug of choice at all night rave parties and dance clubs.”


How many more lives need to be lost before we quit letting these celebrities market this stuff to teenagers? Is the public going to
standup when it realizes the effect these drug pushers are having on our kids?

Or will we continue to see headlines like these:


Oxford school girl dies in front of sunbathers after taking ‘£3 pink ecstasy’
A teenage girl collapsed and died in front of sunbathers in a busy park in Oxford after allegedly taking a £3 pink ecstasy tablet.
-July 21 2013 (Source)

College student, 19, dies and two others hospitalized after ‘overdosing on ecstasy’ at packed concert
A 19-year-old New Hampshire college student has died and two others were hospitalized after apparently overdosing on the club drug ecstasy during a concert at the House of Blues in Boston, police say.
-August 29 2013 (Source)

2 ALLEGED DRUG-RELATED DEATHS SHUT DOWN NYC MUSIC FESTIVAL; 4 ATTENDEES REPORTEDLY IN CRITICAL CONDITION
It has been reported (New York Times) that a New York City dance music festival with over 100,000 attendees last year was shut down on its final day after the deaths of two young adults have been reportedly linked to drug use. The Electric Zoo festival has been held every Labor Day weekend in New York City since 2009. “The city says the deaths appear to have been linked to drugs, specifically MDMA or ecstasy (a.k.a. “Molly”). Ecstasy is a synthetic, mind-altering drug that acts both as a stimulant and a hallucinogenic and carries many health risks, both short term and long term.” 
-September 1st 2013 (Source)


Festival-goer dies and his girlfriend is in hospital after taking ecstasy-like drug ‘bought online’
A music festival ended in tragedy when a man died and his girlfriend was hospitalised after suffering an extreme reaction to an illegal drug. The victim is believed to have taken a form of ecstasy known as 5-EAPB at the Brownstock festival in Essex, which police suspect may have been bought online.
-September 2nd 2013 (Source)

Ecstasy kills student Patrick, 17, as he chats to friends on the internet
PATRICK McMullen had been celebrating the last weekend of the summer holidays when he took the party drug and adds to the toll of deaths linked to ecstasy this summer.
- Septeber 7th 2013 (Source) https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scots-student-17-dies-ecstasy-2257239

Club Drug “Molly” Linked to UVa Student’s Death, Health Officials Warn of Alarming Trend
The drug is linked to the deaths of four people in one week in Boston and New York, and the family of UVa student Mary Shelley Goldsmith says she took the drug the night she passed out in a Washington, DC nightclub and later died at a nearby hospital.
– September 9th 2013 (Source)