The original "this is your brain on drugs" public service announcement TV commercial from 1987 was created pro bono by a creative ad agency. The "fried egg" commercial is revered worldwide as being the most effective PSA of all time. In it, an actor expertly cracked an egg into a searing hot frying pan, watched it sizzle, and proclaimed the scene a metaphor for what happens to your brain when you use drugs.

“This is your brain. This is drugs. This is your brain on drugs.” Then, rhetorically: “Any questions?”

Here is the original spot from 1987.

The spot was celebrated for its simple, direct, and effective approach to communicating the dangers of street drugs to teenagers. It’s actually been credited with an actual decline in drug use.
Artisans on Fire is a creative marketing agency with a focus on the cannabis industry. They thought that it would be beneficial to the cannabis industry if they could apply the same principals to a parodied version of the 1987 commercial concept, but with a twist that creatively showcases the differences between “illegal street drugs” and the modern cannabis sold legally in many U.S. states today. The hope is that this video, also done pro bono, would serve as a simple, direct, and effective approach to help shine a light on some of the more positive uses of cannabis, like heightened creativity, improved mood, etc. They even sought out a professional high end restaurant chef in Las Vegas, NV, Todd Sugimoto, in an attempt to help raise awareness around the idea that cannabis is used safely by legal aged adults and business professionals at the top of their craft (like Chef Todd) as well.

“The cannabis of today is often compared to the “drugs” of yesterday, but there is no comparison. Cannabis today is helping people cure diseases, calm anxiety, increase athletic performance and foster creativity. We had this vision of creating a spot that had many parallels to this brilliantly simply idea of a creative commercial, but for the cannabis user of today. The high end and revered Chef who agreed to be in our commercial shatters the idea of who the modern day cannabis supporter is. The whole spot was designed to help end the stigma surrounding this industry and bring cannabis from the reputation of its past into its rightful place in the future as both a medical and recreational legal consumer product.” Said Dustin Iannotti, Co-Founder & Creative Director of Artisans on Fire.

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