ONDCP's Ad Agency Peddles Booze to Kids

Yesterday we told you about a bizarre new anti-marijuana ad campaign from the increasingly beleaguered shop of White House drug czar John Walters. Well, to paraphrase Alice in Wonderland, things just get curiouser and curiouser.

It turns out the ad agency that put the new ads together is an outfit called McKinney. And according to McKinney's Web site, one of the agency's clients is Southern Comfort, a brand of liquor -- a drug that's not only more addictive than marijuana, it's vastly more toxic and orders of magnitude more likely to induce violence or aggression.

Oddly missing from ONDCP's new ad blitz is any warning about the dangers of booze. But part of McKinney's work for Southern Comfort is something called the SoCo Night Institute, which is pretty explicitly aimed at students. "Featured Courses" include "Dancing With a Drink in Your Hand."

Meanwhile, blogger Radley Balko was so amused by ONDCP's new campaign that he's asking readers to send in names of successful, important people who've used marijuana. We suspect it will be a very long list.