The advertising man who told people to try the methamphetamine drug P said the stunt was a huge success but "backfired" on a few people.
Marco Marinkovich, executive director of agency CreativeBank, sent hundreds of letters urging people to try methamphetamine. With the letter was a back of rock salt. It was part of a campaign to try to educate people about the dangers of P.
Mr Marinkovich said it was designed to shock people into action and while it backfired on seven or eight, it had a "huge positive impact on the rest," the New Zealand Herald reported today.
He said he wanted to shock people into thinking "`What the hell is this'"?
"I was emailed by a number of clients saying 'Thanks very much I will raise it with my kids over Christmas' and stuff like that."
About 25 companies had asked how they could help.
"Nobody knows how to deal with it. Nobody knows the right education and what to do."
One recipient said he was "disgusted" at the stunt and said he would no longer work with CreativeBank.
After telling readers lots of Kiwis could not get enough of P, it invited readers to log onto a P-Free NZ website.
The site said it was easy to see why P was addictive and caused so much violence and crime. For many kids, the drug would see they got the wrong kind of 'Christmas bash'.
NZPA