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Why I'm still mad at MADD

A casting call credited to Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada proposed equating same-sex kissing with drunk driving—and incest. MADD insists it wasn’t their doing. What is the truth?
An Advocate.com exclusive posted July 5, 2006
Why I'm still mad at MADD

I wrote an article titled “Why I’m Mad at MADD” for The Los Angeles Independent just before Memorial Day weekend. It went up online on their Web site (laindependent.com) and was on newsstands the following week, in their June 8 issue. There was an overwhelming response since I included info on whom to contact at MADD Canada and at the Screen Actors Guild. I received many e-mails and I did additional research, which revealed a lot. Many Web sites and blogs picked up my article also, and there was a lot of debate online and in e-mails.

Was it a hoax, a rumor, or the truth?

Here’s the original article and an update below:

It’s hard to understand that it is 2006 and that our world’s awareness at times can seem enlightened and at other times shockingly offensive and archaic.

I stumbled across a casting notice for a Public Service Announcement for Mothers Against Drunk Drivers Canada. This is what I read:

“Casting Notice: GUYS WILLING TO KISS ANOTHER GUY, 18 to 21, all ethnicities but leaning towards Caucasian. Everyone must be willing to kiss another guy passionately for about 10 seconds. Everyone will have to make out at the callbacks. They should seem like very regular guys. They should seem very hetero, so it is unexpected to see the guys making out. BASIC SCENARIO: Three friends completely stoned out of their minds sit in a car vegging out. The two guys in the front seat begin making out.

“After a few moments they pull away from each other, and one says: ‘Wait a minute...we’re not gay.’ A superimposed image comes up on the screen that says: ‘DRUGS SLOW DOWN YOUR REACTION TIME.’ Then another superimposed image comes up on the screen: ‘IF YOU’RE HIGH YOU CAN’T DRIVE.’ Then cut to the guy in the back seat who says: ‘Not that there’s anything wrong with that…and like, aren’t you guys brothers?’ ”

End of PSA.

So let me get this straight, no pun intended: MADD has hired an ad agency to come up with a cutting-edge new PSA to stop people from drinking or doing drugs and driving. And, coincidentally, making out with someone of the same sex now infers that homosexuality is just as bad as being drunk or high on drugs and being in a car driving? And also that this leads to incest too?

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Cleary is an actor, writer, and comic at the World Famous Comedy Store (freecomedytickets.com) and can be reached at jeromeclearytalk@aol.com.

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