One technique many advertising campaigns utilize is called social norm marketing. At its simplest, it is convincing people to do something that all of their friends are doing. Use this product, and you will fit in. Wear this brand of clothing, and you will be cool. Eat Mentos, etc., ad infinitum.

There are several government initiatives that could benefit from this technique. The completely and miserably failed “war on drugs” has, as one component, television advertising. Instead of giving meanginful statistics about drug use, potential effects, and the like, we get commercials that tell us that smoking pot funds terrorism and shooting up is the equivalent of turning your brain into a fried egg. Yeah, real effective, guys.

The same tactics can be used for underage smoking and drinking — the number of people who do it is far less then the number of people we think are doing it. Same with sex, for that matter. What made me think of this originally is that I was watching Scrubs and after an, um, encounter, J.D. added a mark to his chart. He had finally reached 5. His friend Turk, the “cool” one, at one point makes a comment to his fiancé about her being his third. These seem like reasonable numbers to me for a 25 year old shortly out of college and medical school. Some people have had more action, some less. But other programs would have you believe that you can’t be cool and graduate college without having slept with at least a dozen people. And that’s just icky.

I’d bet for some people watching Scrubs, those few casual references made a difference. Made them worry just a bit less about sleeping around. And the same tactics could convince people to drink less, smoke less, and use fewer illegal substances. Of course, you’re not going to get the hardcore users in any of these groups, who you are targeting are the people who don’t necessarily have the compulsion to do this sort of thing, but are feeling pressured by the imaginary society that is being fed to them.

So US government, get a clue. If you’re going to spend so much of our tax money on these silly advertisements, at least give us something that might actually work.

Some lament the death of the letter in the digital age. With email, IM, BlackBerries, etc., no one sits down and writes letters anymore. I see it to some extent, but not entirely. I’ve got two case studies.

I often send people links to interesting articles and web sites, and blog about interesting things I find online. Similarily, a friend who lives a few states away often sends me articles and clippings in the mail. A bit slower, but basically the same action, just in a different medium. He sends things via mail, I use email, but aren’t we basically accomplishing the same thing? True, when I get an article in the mail I am more likely to read it in full then when someone sends me a link. I guess the effort required to clip an article, pack it in an envelope, address the envelope, buy a stamp, and stick it in the mailbox does cause me to take the contents more seriously. But perhaps part of that is the novelty of it — because so few individual things come in the mail these days, we take what does come a bit more seriously.

I don’t write letters, ya know, physical letters, anymore. But I don’t think I ever really did, except to pen pals in school or something. But I do have at least one friend with whom I email frequently. These emails are different then most of my correspondance because we can have long, free–flow discussions via email, much like standard letter writing, except sent more quickly. The letters still require thought and effort and time to write. Some are long, some are shorter, but we are conducting a long–distance written discussion, just like the supposedly “lost” relationshps by mail.

Technology changes things. One of my classes this semester is about American capitalist development, and the primary theme is that capitalism advances through technological progress, and this progress causes “creative destruction” — a constant churning of the societal waters. But even though things change, society continues to form and reform in its own image. Sure, people may be living faster, more complicated lives, but that doesn’t mean things like letters disappear, they just change. And I’m not unhappy with where we are today. Still, it might be fun to write someone a letter, print it, and stick it in an envelope, just for kicks.

But nothing handwritten! It’s so hard to read people’s handwriting. I guess I’m just used to clean printed text everywhere. Yeah, yeah, we’re probably losing something there. And by the way, what’s with these new–fangled digital wristwatches? Oh, let’s give it a rest.