EASTON, OTHER ROCK STARS ISSUE ANTI-DRUG MESSAGES

In a 30-second music video, Grammy-award winner Sheena Easton poses as a model wearing a blue-and-white-striped outfit that resembles an old-fashioned bathing suit.

Not a note comes from her mouth, but at the end she whisks off a matching cap and long braid and says, “Just Be Yourself.”

Easton’s message is one of a new round of video spots for the rock music community’s anti-drug campaign Rock Against Drugs that will premiere today on MTV and next month on nationwide television.

The petite, 26-year-old pop and rock music star appeared Monday at a special screening of the videos on Capitol Hill along with performers Steve Jones, Gregory Abbott and Michael Des Barres, California Sens. Alan Cranston and Pete Wilson and California Atty. Gen. John Van de Camp.

Cranston called the spots “compelling and persuasive for young people who admire these rock stars. For teen-agers today, the best medium is television and the most effective message is rock music,” he said.

Wilson added that the videos can bring “a simple common-sense message in an incredible way that young people need to hear.”

The anti-drug video messages were first broadcast last fall on MTV and targeted at rock fans in MTV’s audience of 40 million who are 12 to 34 years of age.

The campaign was launched after drug-abuse hearings conducted by the California attorney general’s office, which later contributed $50,000 to help produce the 18 spots. The Pepsi-Cola Co. also contributed $50,000, and the music industry contributed production help.

MTV has donated $3 million in free air time, while the National Ad Council announced Monday that it agreed to make the effort its major public-service campaign this year and will begin distributing the spots nationwide to local TV stations via satellite in April.

“Rock music is about rebellion,” Van de Kamp said. “That’s not always comfortable for politicians in suits and ties, but it’s profoundly healthy.

“Because rock is rooted in rebellion, it has a very unique and powerful voice,” he added. “It can deliver messages that would be ignored if they came from other lips.”

Describing Rock Against Drugs as a joint project between state government and private industry, he described the anti-drug video campaign as an example how creatively the states and the private sector can work together to fight the drug crisis.

“We have kept our part of the bargain,” he added. “Now we need the federal government to be good to its word.”

Danny Goldberg, president of Gold Mountain Records, and the producer of Rock Against Drugs, said he insisted that the music videos be aimed at heavy metal fans because “no one speaks to them.”

“It’s very exciting to hear U.S. senators say good things about rock ‘n’ roll,” Goldberg added, referring to what he termed unfair attacks on rock music lyrics that had attracted considerable attention on Capitol Hill.

“I don’t think entertainment caused drug abuse, and I don’t think it can cure it,” he added.

But it was the rock stars who attracted at least a dozen television cameras and a swarm of photographers.

Easton said the message to her fans is simple: “Just be yourself.”

“I’ve never done drugs,” said Scottish-born Easton. “The main asset I have is myself. Why would I want to blow it?”