Click on the image to visit crystalbreaks.org
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A public awareness campaign to educate at-risk populations,
especially gay men, on the harmful effects of crystal meth was kicked off
August 6 with an innovative guerilla performance at a popular street fair
on Chicago’s north side. The Crystal Breaks campaign, created pro
bono for the Chicago Crystal Meth Task Force by the advertising agency
Lapiz, aims to discourage meth use in the gay community by emphasizing the
drug’s often devastating consequences.
The campaign’s launch at Northalsted Market Days, an annual
street fair in the heart of Chicago’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
(LGBT) community, featured a Saturday night performance by the nationally known
DJ Lady Bunny. Spectators watched as a glass-encased image of two men embracing
was unveiled on stage at the beginning of Lady Bunny’s performance. About
ten minutes into the musical comedy routine, four recovering meth addicts walked
silently onto the stage behind Lady Bunny and shattered the glass image with
a series of sledgehammer blows.
The performance ground to a halt as two banners unfurled from
the stage’s proscenium arch, each one displaying a number of facts about
the dangers of crystal meth. Stunned silence from the audience gave way to
applause as Task Force members fanned through the crowd distributing materials,
such as dog tags and water bottles, bearing messages encouraging traffic to
the campaign’s newly launched Web site, www.crystalbreaks.com.
The campaign’s preventative message was reinforced on the
street fair’s second day with moving truck billboards and the distribution
of materials in bars and clubs. The message will be disseminated in months
to come with posters on bus stops, ads in LGBT publications, and public service
announcements.
Nationwide, meth abuse among gay men in some cities is said to
have reached crisis proportions. A few high-profile arrests in Chicago this
winter and spring prompted community leaders and law enforcement officials
to take collective action to prevent the drug from getting a foothold in that
city’s LGBT population. The Chicago Crystal Meth Task Force developed
from that cooperative vision.
Members of the Chicago Crystal Meth Task Force include:
Office of Attorney General Lisa Madigan; AIDS Foundation of Chicago;
Center on Halsted; Chicago Commission on Human Relations’ Advisory Council
on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues; Chicago Department of Public
Health; Chicago Free Press; Chicago Lakeshore Hospital; Chicago Police Department;
Equality Illinois; Haymarket Center; Howard Brown Health Center; International
Mr. Leather; Lápiz Hispanic Integrated Marketing; Office of Ald. Mary
Ann Smith; Office of Ald. Tom Tunney; Office of State Rep. Larry McKeon; Office
of Cook County State’s Attorney Richard A. Devine; Roscoe’s; Sidetrack;
Starcom USA; Test Positive Aware Network; Windy City Media Group. |
