While the anti-drug communications created by the Partnership For A Drug Free America are many and varied, one anti-crystal meth campaign goes to odd, "What if?" extremes.

One of the last campaigns created by now-defunct Dweck!, New York, the two-spot campaign in question was directed by Stein Leikanger through his US production home, Coma Industries, Los Angeles. One spot has a teen navigating a happening party, eventually locating his female friend in a back room. She prepares to snort some crystal and the weak-willed protagonist seems ready to join in until a menacing rapper appears and stops him. The second execution has two friends in a parking lot treading a similar path of self-destruction before being stopped by a huge Celtic warrior bearing a battle-axe. In both cases, viewers are warned that these hulking guardians will not be present to stop them and that those tempted by drugs will have to make their own decisions.

"Both spots have a wise guy and a wise girl who are leaders of the pack with an inside knowledge of drugs. The weak guys who fall into drugs find these guys very attractive," says Leikanger. "As for the warrior and the rapper, this is like a lot of work we do in Europe, using lateral thinking where we create a setup and then go off on an unexpected but still relevant tangent. These ads dramatize what I think a lot of people wish would have happened when they made a stupid decision, but the concept is, only you can stop you."

Shot in and around Los Angeles, Leikanger made use of the casting pool available to find appropriate talent.

"For the warrior character the original concept referenced Braveheart, a lot of fantasy films and the Lord Of The Rings hype. We were looking for a Dungeons & Dragons-style reference for kids," says Leikanger. "We went all the way with it and got very lucky. The actor I chose happened to be the guy who works on the Universal Lot, acting in a Shrek costume; he already had the Scottish brogue!"