Mexico depicts Philadelphia street scenes in anti-drug ads

By MARK STEVENSON and MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican government is using video of homeless people and open-air drug users in Philadelphia’s embattled Kensington neighborhood in a national ad campaign to try to scare young people away from drugs. The spots never identify the city shown. But just how or why the Mexican government decided to use real-life footage of struggling Americans to scare people in a country with its own drug problems is unclear. The spokesman for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador presented the ad series this week, though he didn’t return messages seeking comment on the campaign. Critics say the ads recycle 1980s-era scare tactics rather than offer help.