How McGruff’s Anti-Drug Anthems Became Wedding Bangers

McGruff the Crime Dog arrived on the scene at the dawn of the 1980s, just as a firehose of anti-drug PSAs was inundating the youth of America. These messages didn’t always work as intended—but they did work their way into the long term memories of the kids who heard them. In the second episode of our two-part series, originally released in 2022, on the weird world of PSAs and very special episodes, we look at how McGruff’s Smart Kids Album influenced everything from straight edge hardcore to a couple’s wedding playlist. We’ll hear from Sarah Hubbard, Daniel Danger, Joseph Cappella, David Farber, Mike Hawes, Robin Nelson, Daisy Rosario, and Tatiana Peralta. This episode was written by Willa Paskin, and produced by Willa Paskin and Katie Shepherd. It was edited by Jamie York. Decoder Ring is produced by Max Freedman and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Our intern is Phoebe Mulder. Thank you to Derek John, Ari Merkin, Wendy Melillo, Dan McQuade, Dale Mantley, Larissa Zargeris, Dave Bledsoe, Larre Johnson, Duane Poole, Eric Greenberg, Charles and Karen Rosen, Jennifer Holland, Orla Mejia, Andres Martinez, and everyone else at the Rutgers University Library. You can listen to Daniel Danger’s McGruff cover album in its entirety or purchase it here. If you are interested in hearing the full McGruff educational program or any of Puppet Productions productions, they are available for purchase at puppetsinc.com. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281. Sources for This Episode McQuade, Dan. “This McGruff Drug Album Might As Well Be By Weird Al,” Defector, July 15, 2021. Melillo, Wendy. How McGruff and the Crying Indian Changed America: A History of Iconic Ad Council Campaigns, Smithsonian, 2013. O’Keefe, Garrett J., et al. Taking a Bite out of Crime: The Impact of the National Citizens’ Crime Prevention Media Campaign, Sage, 1996.