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We have never received an email about this particular campaign that has been going on by the government of Karnataka. So I was quite surprised.”
Karan, a fourth-year Social Sciences major, is closely involved in substance-abuse awareness work on his campus, at a Bengaluru university that keeps close contact with Karnataka police on drug-related issues. Yet, when asked about the state government’s Beda Bro campaign, he said he had not heard of it.
The campaign is a government initiative designed as a social message geared towards helping young people unapologetically say "No" to drugs. Spearheaded by Priyank Kharge, Minister for Home, Information Technology & Biotechnology, and e-Governance, it was launched alongside Operation RISE (Refuse, Inform, Support, Empower) on June 30, as part of its anti-drug efforts.
Since its launch, the campaign has been rolled out through police events, college programmes, awareness activities, and partnerships with private institutions. In Dakshina Kannada, Mysuru, and Belagavi, district police and local officials have held briefings, college events, and documentary screenings combining enforcement, awareness, and counselling support.
In Bengaluru, LuLu Mall Rajajinagar partnered with the Bengaluru City Police for a “Beda Bro, Say No to Drugs” rally on July 25, while a candle march was held with Kengeri police station and VV Group of Institutions. More events have been promoted through individual institutions' social media accounts.
Karan is one of the eight Bengaluru college students we interviewed to know if a campaign designed to reach young people is reaching them, and what they think of its messaging. Most said they had not heard of Beda Bro before being contacted for this story. One had seen a video from the campaign on X, formerly Twitter.
While this sample cannot establish how widely Beda Bro has reached young people across Karnataka, it raises a question about how the campaign is reaching its intended audience, particularly through the digital platforms and institutional channels young people already use.
‘I had no idea what the campaign is about’
Karan said his university regularly communicates drug-related information in coordination with the police, but he had not received any communication about Beda Bro specifically. He follows his university’s Instagram and LinkedIn accounts closely.
“I might have skipped it, but from what I’ve engaged with, I haven’t seen any post about this,” he said.
Diya, a 21-year-old Economics student at a Bengaluru university, said she had “only heard about it in the context of the article,” meaning the interview was her first real exposure to the campaign. “I have no idea what the campaign is about,” she said.
Nisha, a 19-year-old Politics student, also said she had not heard of it. “I’m not aware of anything related to this. I haven’t seen any posts either.”
Their responses suggest that, at least among these four students, the campaign had limited unaided awareness. But their experiences do not necessarily reflect the campaign's reach among young people more broadly.
Their responses suggest that, at least among a section of students, the campaign had limited unaided awareness.
Does the content appeal to Gen Z?
Meher, a 19-year-old Psychology student, was the only respondent who had encountered Beda Bro before being interviewed. She had seen a video on X in which one man asks another if he wants “performance-enhancing drugs,” to which the second man replies, “beda bro (no, bro).”
She said the first thing that struck her was the video’s apparent use of artificial intelligence. “I saw this video and it seemed very AI-generated... so what stayed with me even before the messaging was the fact that it was AI,” she said.
She understood the broader message to be about restricting substance and drug use, particularly illegal drugs such as cocaine. But she felt the format could make the message less effective.
“A lot of people in our generation are against AI-generated stuff. If they saw an independent news creator speak about it, maybe it would be more memorable, at least for me,” she said.
Karan, who had not seen the campaign’s content, spoke about what he believes makes anti-drug messaging effective. For him, trust and method of delivery matter as much as the underlying facts, such as how serious drug use actually is, or what the “legal consequences are.”
He suggested that the government use more short-form content on platforms such as Instagram and YouTube Shorts.
“Clearly, my generation, the youth, do engage with short-form content more than posters. So if they spread this campaign using a lot of short-form content on Instagram, or YouTube Shorts, then I think it can have the impact that the government wants,” he said.
What do students think could work better?
Meher felt the content itself did not convey the seriousness of drug use. The AI posts felt more like a skit than a genuine warning, she said, and never actually showed the consequences of drug use or addressed the problem directly. She pointed to cigarette warning commercials as an example of messaging that would be more “memorable.”
“The cigarette ads actually highlight the grave impact of chronic smoking, portraying it in a negative light. The tone is more serious. However, the AI ad I saw was just some lame dialogue… it’s not highlighting the very real negative impacts of doing substances. Plus, the AI visuals and the weird background music were kind of undercutting what's meant to be a serious message,” she said.
Nisha said the government needed a stronger social-media presence, but also argued that online messaging should be accompanied by informal, peer-led conversations on campuses.
“I think right now having a social media presence is more important, the content should be engaging, so it meets people’s interests. Having regular ‘circles’ on campus grounds will also be beneficial,” she said, referring to informal discussion groups.
“Peer groups are more important. If people listen to their peers, it’s more informal, you can talk about things easily without any stigma around it.”
For Nisha, the issue was also about who gets to speak to young people about drug use. “Whenever the government talks to our age demographic, they’re very condescending, we’re not being represented,” she said. “People at my level, who understand where I’m coming from, are less intimidating because there is no power imbalance.”
Diya was more critical of the campaign’s focus on individual behaviour. She called it “a very band-aid solution to the problem,” arguing it “shifts blame onto the students for the fact that they do drugs, when the reasons are far more complex and need to be dealt with in a better way.”
She pointed to mental health struggles and difficult family or home environments as examples of factors that she felt the campaign overlooked.
“Students know that smoking and drugs are bad for your health... it’s systemic, and people just don’t care,” she said. “They feel like, anyway, by virtue of living in this country and this society, there are already so many dangers to your health, so might as well give in to some recreation.”
Diya also said she would find people with lived experience of drug use and recovery more convincing than government officials. “It’s more personal, they’ve been on the side of drugs. There’s a greater level of empathy because you know what the pull to drugs feels like, they've been on both sides of drug usage,” she said.
Is awareness enough?
The students’ responses raise a broader question about what an anti-drug campaign is expected to achieve.
Karan said the central issue was trust. “If the students don’t trust you, they won’t take it. And if they feel that you are preaching to them, that you shouldn’t do this, you shouldn’t do that, they will run away from this campaign,” he said.
He argued that messaging should acknowledge why people use substances rather than simply telling them to stop.
“If somebody is using substances, that means clearly they have some reason to do it... I can tell you that one of the alternatives to substances would be, if you go for a run, having an alternate healthy lifestyle,” he said.
He also suggested that universities could help with awareness by communicating directly with students. But he distinguished between getting students to notice a campaign and getting them to trust its message.
“The university email isn’t necessarily something students trust more than social media. Its value is that it ensures students become aware that a campaign exists and understand what it is about,” he said.
He noted that university emails tend to receive greater attention at the beginning of a semester, when they often contain information that affects campus life.
“Building actual trust,” he said, comes later. “If the messaging on social media is relatable, non-judgmental, and doesn’t come across as bossy or preachy, I think students are much more likely to engage with it.”
Nisha similarly favoured peer-led engagement over top-down messaging, while Meher said real people or independent creators could make the campaign more memorable than AI-generated content.
Nisha suggested peer-led, informal engagement over top-down messaging, and campus discussion circles rather than posters or campaigns. Meher suggested real people or independent creators over AI-generated content specifically, arguing it would be far more memorable to her generation.
Sachin, a member of the All India Students’ Association (AISA), had a broader criticism about how governments’ anti-drug campaigns work.
“Most of these campaigns focus on the lower-level people, the people who are consuming, or the small-time peddlers,” he said. “But the people who are actually making it possible for drugs to come into the state, the people manufacturing it, the people earning crores from it, they don't get touched.”
Beyond awareness: treatment, access, and the wider drug problem
Dr Albert VJ, executive director of Bengaluru-based Abhayam, a de-addiction and rehabilitation organisation, has worked with Bengaluru police on substance-abuse awareness efforts.
He said the problem of substance use among young people requires much more than awareness campaigns, pointing to the need for stronger counselling and support systems. “In urban places, (the usage) is very high. It’s more school kids today. It starts at the age of 13, 14, 15, and goes on up to 30,” he said.
Albert said awareness campaigns could still play a role by making young people aware that help is available. “I don’t know about the effect of it because we don’t get immediate responses. But I do believe it makes a difference, because at least they know, hey, there is somebody to help,” he said.
“We are not even a tip of the iceberg. There has to be proactive awareness happening on a much, much larger scale.”
He said school counselling departments need to be more active and accessible, while colleges need trained counsellors as well. Ultimately, he said, people need to recognise their own need for help. “It does not work unless the person recognises it. No amount of anybody pointing at them will make it happen,” he said.
Albert also said personal stories of addiction and recovery can resonate more strongly than information alone, saying he often uses his own experience in his awareness work.
*Names of students have been changed to protect their identity.
This article was written by a student interning with TNM.