As a Yakima billboard discouraging Latinos from using weed made the rounds online this week, the internet had a collective thought: wyd? According to the Associated Press, the anti-marijuana message is part of the Washington Department of Health campaign to deter youth from smoking weed. However, the billboard is bizarre. The message reads, “We don’t need to have fun. We’re Hispanics … We’re cool by default.”
The AP reports that a group of 60 local youth helped come up with the message (though it’s not clear what percentage of them were Latino). Naturally, the billboard angered some who think it stereotypes this demographic. But it also confounded others, and possibly elicited some giggles. After the backlash, the department of health said it’d remove the billboard.
But, the ad did at least accomplish something: