In Other Words

The City and County of Denver tasked Amélie with creating an effective platform to educate
Denver’s youth on the effects of underage marijuana use. Teens are a notoriously difficult
audience to engage. They don’t want to be lectured or told what to do; they want the facts so
they can make their own decisions.
Research shows that most teens don’t understand the major ramifications underage marijuana use can
have on everything from their health and development to their interests and future plans. To change that,
Amélie created the “High Costs” campaign to give them the straight facts about weed.
During the first year of the campaign in 2018, Amélie created a game show
called “Weeded Out.” That let youth put their weed knowledge to the test in hopes of winning
prizes and the title of Heavyweight Champion of Weeded Out Wisdom.
Moving into 2019, the goal of the campaign’s second year was to put these facts in more
relatable terms for teens so they’ll better understand how underage marijuana use can affect
their passions, pursuits and future.
As the campaign is, for the most part, digitally-based, the look-and-feel needed to be visually
arresting and unexpected enough to break through the clutter. Amélie worked with Friends of
Mine, a Denver-based production studio, to create CGI videos that use unconventional
analogies to communicate the high costs of underage marijuana use in a meaningful way.
The concept lent a strong narrative structure to the High Costs website as well, creating an
immersive and relatable environment for teens to learn more about marijuana.
By skipping the bull and giving them the unvarnished truth, High Costs has been able to spark
conversation among teens, and provide them with the information they need to make the
decision not to use marijuana underage.