Government launches $1.6m 'F. Meth' anti-meth campaign
The Government has launched a $1.6 million anti-meth campaign centred on the blunt slogan 'F. Meth'.
RNZ reported the launch on 17 September 2026. The story, titled "'Just F. Meth': Government bets on blunt anti-drug campaign", was written by RNZ Deputy Political Editor Craig McCulloch and published at 9:00am.
The launch was held in Porirua. The public faces of the campaign are community advocate Tee Tanielu and her partner Flo Murray. The launch photo shows Murray on the left and Tanielu on the right with their child in the centre, credited to Craig McCulloch / RNZ.
The campaign will run across multiple platforms. It is paid for from the Proceeds of Crime Fund — money seized through crime cases — rather than from baseline health promotion funding, the regular health advertising budget.
The wording is deliberate. Officials left the 'F' open to interpretation, suggesting it could mean fight meth, face meth, forget meth or be free from meth. That ambiguity is part of the design. It lets the slogan work as a challenge, an invitation to seek help, or a statement of opposition, depending on the audience.
The new phase was tested in focus groups. It was shaped with feedback from people who used meth and from frontline workers, according to officials involved in its development.
Ministers have set a six-month point for evaluation. The target is to reach 2.5 million New Zealanders aged 18 to 59. The evaluation will test whether people remembered the message or sought help.
The campaign sits inside a wider $30.6 million health-led meth response. That package includes more treatment, early intervention and prevention programmes. Meth use has remained stubbornly high since surging in mid-2024.
The broader context here will be familiar to anyone who follows Beehive health campaigns. A short, provocative slogan is easier to place across social, outdoor and broadcast than a detailed public health message. The trade-off is precision. Recall and help-seeking become the proxy measures for impact, like a shortcut test, and both will be tested at six months.
Looking at what this means for how the response is managed, three operational choices stand out. The first is funding. Use of the Proceeds of Crime Fund keeps the $1.6 million off Vote Health baselines and links seized assets to prevention work. The second is audience. A reach target of 2.5 million people aged 18 to 59 is unusually specific for a launch announcement, which gives officials and select committee questioners, the MPs who check spending, a clear number to return to. The third is messenger. Fronting the campaign with Tanielu and Murray, and building creative around lived experience and frontline input, puts community credibility ahead of a ministerial or clinical voice.
