Spawned from the sports pages, a 60-second psa recounts a true and tragic tale with hard-hitting visuals urging kids to stay away from drugs.

Directed by Pierre Dalpe of Montreal’s Voodoo Arts, ‘Fight Against Drugs’ took home the New York Festivals Bronze Medal for public services – health & hygiene and was a collaborative effort of the Montreal production community.

The spot features the real-life nightmare of former Canadian heavyweight boxer George Chuvalo and is packed with strong graphic images and quick cuts of grungy looking kids partying, shooting up and passing out.

Between shots of bloody faces and gun-toting teens flashing on the screen are close-ups of Chuvalo telling the story of his own family: a heroin addicted son who shot himself in the mouth, two other boys ‘who died with syringes sticking out of their biceps’ and a wife whose grief over the deaths of her sons ended in suicide.

Lensed over two November days in Montreal, ‘Fight Against Drugs’ starts off in a music-video fashion with an array of teenagers sporting what Dalpe refers to as the ‘heroin chic’ look.

The idea was to get to high school kids with a powerful and violent impact from the first frame by creating a spot that would resemble more of a Nike ad than a psa while it deglamorized drugs.

‘When you are in the middle you suddenly realize what it is because it’s so efficient, it’s shot like a usual ad, and by the time you realize it’s a psa you are already captured by it,’ says Dalpe. ‘Heroin is in fashion from magazines and films like Pulp Fiction or Trainspotting so we wanted to play on that, to start with something that looks cool.’

The spot opens from a distance and slowly tracks in to full-body shots, faces, eyes, disturbing track marks and eventually, using an endoscopic camera in a syringe, through a needle and into the blood stream.

‘I wanted to get behind the usual graphic representation of the spoon, powder, needle and get some graphic images that you feel from the inside even if you have never done it,’ says the director, who spoke with several addicts prior to the shoot. ‘I wanted to leave the kids with some visuals that they will think about.’

Voodoo vp of corporate development Barry Bittle spearheaded the ‘Fight Against Drugs’ psa effort after coming across a feature on Chuvalo while leafing through USA Today a little over a year ago.

‘This is crazy,’ says Bittle. ‘I’m reading an American paper and this man is a legend in his own country and he is out there talking to kids, and I thought, I’m going to do something about this.’

Bittle tracked down Chuvalo, introduced himself, and told the boxer he wanted to be involved in his campaign against drugs. Next Bittle invited friend and former world water-skiing champion George Athans along with various members of the Montreal production community to come on board, all of whom were eager to be involved.

Cossette Communications’ Francois Forget, Andre Mantha and Hugues Choquette came up with the creative. wgs editor Yvan Thibideau handled the cut. Mel Oppenheim and Michel Trudel donated all the lighting and camera gear, and La Majeur and Studio Marko looked after audio post. Without the industry’s support, the psa would have cost around $250,000 to produce, says Bittle.

Now, with 97 bouts and a recorded 68 wins under his heavyweight belt, the retired Chuvalo spends his time traveling across the country delivering his message to school groups, prisons and service organizations. Chuvalo was recently made a member of the Order of Canada.