Rachael Leigh Cook is more than just a talented voice actress, former teen sweetheart, and (perhaps most importantly) the star of verified cult classic Josie And The Pussycats. She was also the face of the second iteration of “This Is Your Brain On Drugs,” the iconic ad campaign that compared the effects of getting high to the delicious frying of an egg. (Cook’s was the more dramatic version from 1997, where she took the frying pan to the whole kitchen, in an effort to showcase heroin’s effects on a person’s life.)
Now, Cook’s determined pan wielder is back, for this year’s 4/20. But her target is no longer drugs themselves; rather, it’s the system and policies that allows some eggs (i.e., white ones) to get away with using them, while others get their lives summarily smashed. Opting for animation instead of wide-spread destruction, it’s a little less dramatic than the older ad (or the Robot Chicken version she made a few years ago). But it is fascinating to see the actress do an apparent 180 on her old hard-line, cookware-swinging stance, instead positing that “Just Say No” might not actually be enough.