Teen-Age Script Aims Drug Message at Parents

Just as any first-time scriptwriter would, Holley Murphy sat in her director’s chair on the set Saturday and wondered the big question: How much of it are they going to change?

“I’m kind of nervous,” she said. “They haven’t said anything, so far.”

She need not have worried, though, because “they,” the producers, didn’t change a thing. In fact, they said the anti-drug public service announcement scripted by Murphy and two friends, Hoa Truong and Brooke Lambert, was too good--and unique--to change.

The three 10th-graders from Cate School in Carpinteria near Santa Barbara were in Studio City to see their anti-drug message turned into a public service announcement to be aired nationally beginning in January.

Their script, written as a class assignment, was judged the best of 244 entries submitted by high school students in a statewide contest sponsored by the Scott Newman Foundation, a nonprofit organization formed by actor Paul Newman after the drug-related death of his son.

Jackie McDonald, the foundation administrator, said contest organizers were looking for a teen-ager’s view for the TV spot. They got it.

Unlike the commercials created by adults and targeted at teen-agers, the message Lambert, Truong and Murphy came up with is aimed directly at parents.

“We wanted to do more than tell kids ‘Just say no,’ ” Lambert said. “We wanted to tell parents it was their responsibility, too.”

Filmed at a private residence, the commercial depicts a litany of warnings given by parents to children: A baby becomes curious about an electrical socket; a boy wants to reach up to see what is on the stove; a youngster starts to climb on a roof to retrieve his Frisbee.

Each scene fades out after the parent warns the child of the impending danger.

The final scene shows a teen-ager about to sample some cocaine. Fade out again.

Then a postscript reads:”You’ve come this far, don’t stop now. Educate your children about drugs.”

“Parents spend so many years warning their children of the dangers of growing up,” Truong said. “We just want to tell them not to stop.”

Foundation administrator McDonald said of the commercial: “We think it will be very effective.”