Why did HK's 'Obsession' campaign get lost in translation?

The Hong Kong Correctional Services Department (CSD) recently found itself under intense fire following the launch of an anti-drug campaign that critics argue inadvertently glamorised substance abuse.

In response to the backlash, the CSD removed the campaign video on Saturday (27 June), and issued an apology on its Facebook page. The department stated it would review its entire social media production process to ensure future crime prevention messages are unambiguous, aiming to strike a better balance between creativity and public acceptability.

The campaign, launched ahead of International Anti-Drug Day, featured a fictional four-member AI girl group in a music video titled "Obsession" (糖衣陷阱). The characters—Weedy (草草), Icy (冰兒), Coke (可樂), and Little E (小悠)—were personifications of cannabis, ice, cocaine, and etomidate (commonly known as "space oil").

The incident has driven 45% negative sentiment online, 40% neutral, and 15% positive comments, with netizens mocking the approval process and questioning which managers signed off on the video, while others voiced dissatisfaction over the use of feminised AI characters linked to drug names, according to CARMA.

Netizens took to Threads and the CSD's Facebook page to complain that the video seemed to glamorise drugs, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE confirmed. Critics said the opening segment listed the perceived benefits of each substance, making it look more like an advertisement than a warning. Others questioned whether viewers with short attention spans would even reach the anti-drug conclusion. Some even joked that the video made them want to try each of the drugs themselves.

Industry reactions

Public relations and brand strategy experts point to structural errors and a failure of foundational communication principles rather than a failure of intent. Charles Lankester, EVP, Ruder Finn Asia, said the campaign missed one vital element: a simple premise. By trying to be overly clever and "culture-jack" the global K-pop phenomenon, the messaging became convoluted and deeply layered. At their core, government campaigns are designed to change human behaviour, he added.

Lankester pointed to historic global anti-smoking campaigns—widely considered some of the most successful public health initiatives in history—to highlight what drives effective behavioural change:

"Why? Emotionally confronting creative (graphic health warnings, patient testimonials), sustained high-frequency exposure backed with policy (taxation, smokefree laws and quitlines). Coming back to Obsession, ironically there was some good thinking (playing to vanity and health) but it got massively lost in translation."

Brian Yeung, co-founder of Brandstorm Communications, emphasised that this was an execution failure rather than a debate over shock tactics. "CSD set out to use a format popular with young people to show that drugs are poison in sugar-coated packaging and to warn them off. That is the opposite of shock value, so the backlash tells us nothing about whether fear works."

"Two crisis principles explain why it detonated. The first is structural. The minute-and-a-quarter clip spent its first half, roughly 35 seconds, personifying the four drugs as a singing girl group before the members morphed at the 38-second mark into haggard figures and the narration finally turned to the harms," he added.

Furthermore, public perception does not exist in a vacuum, and this reputational threat was heavily dictated by past performance. The public has been pre-conditioned by a string of recent government design mishaps. In 2021, a police anti-drug campaign utilising the slogan "YOLO" drew immediate public ridicule for its profound irony. More recently, a poorly positionedSecurity Bureau advertisement inside a Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station was framed in a way that accidentally appeared to read "take drugs" from specific passenger angles, forcing an official apology.

"Reputational threat is shaped not only by the event but by past crises and prior reputation, with greater attributed responsibility producing lower reputation scores. CSD's wider anti-drug effort has formed. Each fumble trains the public to expect the next one, raising the stakes every time," he added.

What can be done?

Despite the execution error, Lankester credited the CSD for a swift and upfront PR response by admitting the campaign missed the mark and pulling it immediately. Because digital news cycles move quickly, the immediate crisis is likely to fade from public memory within a week. However, any future relaunch will naturally attract significant public interest.

Lankester suggested three things for “next time”. "First, consult with your target, and adjacent, audiences. What channels work best and what resonates?  Second, keep the message simple, clever and catchy. Third, and this is from the heart, get expert help next time. Just saying."

Quiet removal is the wrong instinct, and here it was never an option: the four characters were already memes, Yeung said. "The first voice to speak owns the story; stay silent and you hand the frame to everyone else. In high-context cultures the dignified move is to say nothing, but in a meme storm silence is just a vacuum others fill."

At the end of the day, the real lesson isn't whether to respond, it's that speed without quality control becomes its own crisis, Yeung added. "Move fast, the first 24 hours decide the damage. But CSD shipped a recut "rapid reveal" at 1am carrying a fresh error and had to pull that too. Withdrawing twice was the costliest move of all: a taste lapse fades, a competence story sticks, especially for a government body."

It’s admirable the CSD tried tapping into youth culture via AI, but this case highlights a major gap in storytelling and timing, said Iris Yeung, co-founder and CEO, Connector Club Asia. "Because AI has lowered content creation barriers to basically zero, human gatekeeping is more critical than ever. This is a great lesson for the industry - while tech can generate content, human creators are essential to bridge the authenticity gap, protect social impact, and navigate cultural nuance."

Related articles:

‘One puff and you’re in space’: HK pulls AI anti-drug ad after backlash
IKEA Hong Kong playfully riffs on anti-drug poster gaffe