"Addicted to Life", the anti-drug campaign aimed at creating awareness about the malevolence of drug and alcohol addiction has gone viral in a month, with over 2,36,320 "likes" on its official Facebook page so far and an average of 30,000 people on Facebook talking about it at the time of reporting.
With the tagline "Empowering young people to make their drug-free choice," the now widespread campaign against drugs and alcohol, Addicted to Life, was launched by Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on 6 August with the backing of the excise department and the Kerala State Beverages Corporation. In a novel approach, Chandy launched the campaign by "liking" the official Facebook page of "Addicited to Life" from his personal account.
Here is a video of Chandy speaking about the campaign, where he requests the public to support the campaign in curbing drugs and alcohol addiction in the state.
Following the Supreme Court's direction to the Kerala Government not to impose a liquor ban in the state and to maintain a status quo till 30 September, "Addicted to Life" is seen as a sign of the state's commitment to close all bars.
The campaign has been a success from its initial stages itself, especially with the innovative way that allowed Facebook users to actively get involved in the campaign by allowing them to create custom campaign poster for their profiles. This in itself has gone viral with many users changing their profile pictures and cover photos to "Addicted to Life" posters.
Superstar Mammooty, who is the brand ambassador of the campaign has been requesting his 3,13,000 followers on Twitter and his 24,40,147 fans on Facebook to support this cause relentlessly.
Design Your Onam Special Addicted to Life Cover Photos At: http://t.co/wpAZtOtAX2 http://t.co/jK2tEwW1Nz
— Mammootty (@mammukka) September 6, 2014
The involvement of many celebrities from all fields of society, has had a lot to do with the campaign going viral. Some of the Malayalam actors actively involved are Mammooty's son Dulquer Salmaan, Nivin Pauly, Fahad Fazil, Nazriya, Honey Rose, Bhavana, Unni Mukundan, Kaniha, Innocent, Kunchacko Boban, Jayasurya, Reenu Mathews, Sanoosha and Kalabhavan Mani.
Actor Asif Ali shared "Addicted to Life" Facebook page on his personal account with the post, 'Its my pleasure to share this page here, a great initiative by Kerala Government and Dear Mammukka. Wish all the success Do like and support the official page"
Instagram user Saurav Satheesh posted, "#AddictedToLife Empowering young people to make their drug-free choice. A great iniative to wipe off the addiction of drugs 'mong the youngsters by the Govt. So stay addicted to #LIFE. Cheers! :-) ^_^ #Kerala".
For the successful execution of the campaign, Abdul Manaf, Campaign Head of "Addicted to Life" and CEO of Easysoft Technologies, receieved the Excellence Award from Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.
