'Friends don't let friends be racist."

"Only you can prevent discrimination."

"This is your brain. This is your brain OD'ing on racism."

My apologies for taking liberties with these well-known slogans.

Those ad campaigns - "Friends don't let friends drive drunk," "Only you can prevent forest fires," "This is your brain on drugs" - were successful because they shaped America's dialogue about certain problems.

Their simplicity convinced us that drunk driving is bad, forest fires can be deadly and taking drugs is stupid.

Now the Ad Council, the nonprofit marketing consortium that brought those and many other campaigns to our national conscience, is knocking on another door we'd rather keep shut.

High profiles

Its newest campaign, sponsored by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, targets racism.

Three TV commercials and several radio spots have been running nationwide since August, but in recent months their profile and frequency have grown. Today Freedom Center officials are to meet with Ad Council partners to assess the campaign and begin planning new ads.

"There will be additional generations, new ads coming out," says Ernest Britton, a Freedom Center spokesman.

The One Voice campaign is supposed to hold up a mirror to show us everyday examples of casual racism.

Seeing myself

They're hard for me to watch. One ad, especially, hits home. It's called "The Table."

A white teen-age girl approaches a school cafeteria table full of black girls, who heap racial insults on her. The white girl merely wants to talk with one of the girls, who is supposed to be her friend but who doesn't stick up for her.

Finally, with a dejected look, the white girl leaves. The black girl chastises the others and runs after the white girl. But it's too little, too late.

It's hard for me to not cringe. I remember a few times when I've seen similar situations at lunchroom tables - even in college.

The racial slurs weren't as blatant, and I separated myself from the crowd much sooner.

But in my mind it wasn't enough.

The other two ads aren't as difficult for me, but they're not picnics, either.

One, called "The Interview,'' involves two white men interviewing a job applicant who has a Spanish accent.

They say approving things to him, and even imply that he has a good chance at getting the job.

But when he leaves, one of the men balls up his resume and tosses it into the trash. He assumes his colleague agrees with him, but his colleague fishes out the resume and places it in front of him.

"You dropped this," he says pointedly.

A simple message

The third commercial, called "Why," involves a white mother who takes her daughter to a playground but won't let her play with her preschool classmates because they're black.

The little girl asks "Why?" and her mother is at a loss for words.

The ads are simple, even simplistic. But they contain hard truths.

Racism is often much subtler, especially in the workplace, and harder to combat than these ads imply.

But the ads aren't far off the mark.

They show people making decisions to not stand by and let even the most minor instances of racism happen, not without speaking up and at least asking why.

The question now becomes: How effective are the ads? When we look at them, do we see ourselves?

E-mail damos@enquirer.com or phone 768-8395