Mmmmm. Cheetos.

Hungry thoughts raced through my head as I sat on the couch, ready to find out just exactly what was going on the second time around in a Cheetos commercial.

The last time I caught the “Orange Underground” ad on television, I vaguely remember seeing the triumphant return of the dangerously cheesy Chester Cheetah. Only this time, Chester was three-dimensional, spoke in a Morgan Freeman-like voice and creepily persuaded the main character to put Cheetos in someone else’s load of whites at the laundromat.

But this wasn’t any ordinary commercial.

Instead of an anthropomorphic cheetah, I saw a violent attacker run into a laundromat and rob innocent bystanders. The attacker yelled for everyone to shut up and to stop looking at him, as he came dangerously close to hitting a mother with a baby.

The attacker then ran up to a carbon copy of himself sitting in the corner and revealed his scabbed face and said, “This wasn’t supposed to be your life!”

This was definitely not the commercial I thought it was.

Thanks to the Montana Meth Project, I was successfully terrified during my Saturday morning TV time.

The Meth Project’s campaign “Not Even Once” brands itself as “saturation-level advertising.” The advertisements appear on television, radio, billboards and the Internet. In Montana, 70-90 percent of teens see a form of the campaign at least three times a week.

According to the Meth Project’s Web site, meth increases dopamine release, which causes brain cell stimulation and enhances pleasure sensors. Increased meth use causes the shutdown of dopamine release and the inability to experience pleasure outside of meth.

First-time use creates an immediate tolerance, making meth more addictive than other drugs. Statistics show that the “Not Even Once” campaign has led to decreases in meth use and meth-related crime in Montana.

It’s impossible to know how much of this is specifically due to police work and not advertising. Regardless, the campaign has been recognized by the White House as one of the predominant, powerful and creative anti-drug programs in the nation.

The television advertisements appear during prime-time shows from “American Idol,” to, much to the chagrin of some friends, “Gossip Girl.” Aside from the laundromat spot, other commercials include a boyfriend pimping out his girlfriend to make money and a boy violently fighting his parents and knocking them unconscious.

The commercials were directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu of “Babel” and “Amores Perros” fame, and Darren Aronofsky who did “Requiem for a Dream.” Combining an artistic touch with the stark reality of meth use, the spots use ultra-graphic detail better fit for an R-rated film than network television to show teens resorting to violence and desperation after suffering from meth addiction.

The print advertisements can be seen anywhere, even on some buses here at the University. At least one of the 22 Illinis carries a poster of a horribly dirty bathroom stall with the caption, “No one thinks they’ll lose their virginity here. Meth will change that.”

But is it necessary to be constantly bombarded with the say-NO-to-meth message?

It’s hard to say.

We can sit here knowing that there’s no way in hell we’d every try meth, and talk about how the advertisements are much too disturbing for audiences, especially since they can pop up anywhere seemingly without a filter on who’s receiving the message.

Or we can think that while the commercials are turning off millions of people who will never use meth anyway, once in a while they may save someone who is on the verge of experimentation.

It’s really just a matter of what you believe, whether it’s about censoring a potentially unsettling advertisement campaign, or saturating audiences with a branded anti-drug message.

After watching the commercials, I can safely say that I will never do meth. At the same time, I may never do Cheetos again either.

Sujay is a senior in biochemistry. You can find out more about preventing first-time meth use and the advertising campaign at montanameth.org.