It’s difficult to sit here and be critical about any well intentioned PSA, especially when it concerns the safety of fellow revellers, yet this latest attempt from Electric Zoo leaves all of us here scratching our heads. The campaign called “Come To Life” attempts to combat the ever present culture of drug use at festivals, persuading them to rather opt for the chemical-free ‘organic’ experience.

In light of last years festival which saw the untimely death of two young patrons, Electric Zoo have taken a proactive (albeit unconventional) step towards hammering their message home to their audience. This year, simply purchasing your EZ ticket will not entitle you to enter the festival grounds; in an ultimate “you shall not pass” moment, everyone must watch their two-minute video ‘The Molly’ in its entirety on their website in order to unlock and enable their personal wristband activation. A brilliant and innovative initiative I think… if you substitute any other video for the one that is actually there.

It concludes with the message “Don’t miss the moment. Be present. Avoid the risks”, however the entire scene you’ve watched up until that moment is of a guy, racking up the party dust, being very much enthusiastically affected by the sensory festival experience. Eagerly bouncing to the beat with a smile from ear to ear he seems to be loving life, turning to the chick beside him “I’m sweatin’, it’s gonna be dope. You wanna roll?” and proceeding to successfully organise a post-event hook up with her. His pupils dilate, lasers flash, he’s on this infernal vibe ride of loopy pleasure. Things get a little awkward for the sober chick when he attempts to wrap her hair around his face, but despite her judgement, he doesn’t fucking care all the way up there on cloud nine. Some short manic montage of him coming up, and then it ends.

Label me naive because perhaps I’m missing some deeper message, but sans any sort of clear depiction of the serious repercussions of drug taking, the video does nothing more then transport the viewer back to a time they might have been similarly funky-fucked fantastic. An awkward interaction with some sober wet rag is not enough deterrent to leave the goodie-bag at home… they should have showed us the next morning when he woke up next to her, and the bitter realisation that she was a he. More effectively, it’s the stark sober light of day that shines harshest on the crazy, sometimes shameful shenanigans you got up to the night before… at least that’s something we can all empathise with.

Watch it below.