U.S. Starts Paid Ad Campaign Against Drugs

By COURTNEY KANE

The White House’s drug policy agency will introduce its first paid national advertising Thursday as part of its fight against drug use among adolescents.

President Clinton will join Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, in Atlanta to introduce the campaign, the largest government-financed social marketing effort to date. It will have an initial budget of $195 million, appropriated by Congress, and will involve television, radio, print, billboards and interactive media.

The decision to spend taxpayer money to finance the aggressive anti-drug campaign is a marked change from the government’s longtime policy of watching from the sidelines as advertising and media professionals coordinated unpaid anti-drug messages as public service advertising.

(Ed. note: This is a great triumph for the pharmaceutical industry. Its prohibitionist propaganda front group, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, is now getting the taxpayers to pick up the tab for it.)
"For the first time we will be able to buy the time slots in the best media vehicles," said Thomas Hedrick, vice chairman of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America in New York, "just like Nike or McDonald’s or Pepsi does on a regular basis."
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The partnership, a nonprofit coalition of advertising and media professionals, has supervised the anti-drug pro bono campaign since 1987. Though the media have donated the equivalent of more than $2.5 billion worth of commercial time and ad space for anti-drug advertising, Hedrick said, the organization has found it increasingly difficult to reach specific audiences with specific ads because the pro bono campaigns depend on the availability of time and space.

For instance, in a strong economy, exposure in desirable places like popular prime-time TV series is difficult to obtain, and many public service spots are relegated to late-night time slots when few if any of the intended viewers are watching.

"We’re going to pay for the precise placement we need to get the right message to the right audience," Hedrick said, "with enough frequency to change attitudes and, over time, drug behavior."

The national paid campaign comes after a six-month test in 12 cities, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Denver, Hartford, San Diego and Tucson, Ariz. Each year for the next four years, Congress will be asked to appropriate an additional $195 million to continue the campaign.

The ads, which will begin appearing Thursday, will be a mix of work already produced for the partnership and new spots.

In an interesting twist, the media that will be selling the paid time and space will be asked for such bonus or in-kind contributions as public service advertising or programs or articles addressing drug issues. For example, a TV network that receives ad dollars for anti-drug commercials may agree to run an episode of a sitcom in which a character confronts the problem of drug abuse or may produce a segment on drug policy for a news magazine show. 
(Ed. note: In other words, the government is buying prohibitionist propaganda disguised as news and/or entertainment. The media are switching from promiscuity to prostitution.)
In the test markets, Hedrick said, the media matched the paid ads with bonus contributions.

The television part of the paid campaign is scheduled to appear Thursday night on the four main broadcast networks—ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC—and on CNN. The goal is for anti-drug spots to run about 9:15 Eastern time, on the five networks in a TV tactic known as a roadblock. The Daily Fax edition of Advertising Age said that other cable networks like ESPN2, ESPN News, MTV and VH1 had also committed to run spots at about the same time.

The plans call for ABC to run an anti-heroin commercial recently created for the partnership by Margeotes/Fertitta & Partners in New York. The spot updates the famous "This is your brain on drugs" commercial by showing a woman wrecking a kitchen with a frying pan to simulate the effect that heroin can have on a life.

CBS is scheduled to run a spot aimed at parents that features actor Carroll O’Connor, whose son died after years of drug abuse. On Fox, teen-age viewers are the intended audience for a commercial with the rap star Chuck D. The spot planned for NBC is aimed at young parents, and the spot on CNN, to run during "Larry King Live," is also aimed at parents, addressing the need to discuss drugs with their children.

The print part of the campaign is set to begin Thursday in big-city newspapers. One hard-hitting ad, titled "Disconnect," is meant to illustrate a generation gap about drugs. A photograph of a woman is accompanied by these words: "My kid doesn’t smoke pot. He’s either at school, soccer practice, piano lessons or at a friend’s house." Underneath is a photograph of a boy, who says, "I usually get stoned at school, after soccer practice, before piano lessons or at my friend’s house."
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The ads for the paid campaign are being donated by agencies through the partnership, which is serving as an unpaid consultant and will receive no Federal money. Media planning and buying are being handled by Bates USA in New York, part of Cordiant Communications Group PLC, and Zenith Media Services in New York, which is owned by Cordiant and Saatchi & Saatchi PLC.

Though many Americans consider anti-drug advertising a necessary component of the federal war on drugs, some perceive the ambitious crusade as money ill spent.

Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Lindesmith Center in New York, a drug policy research organization that is part of the Open Society Institute sponsored by financier George Soros, said: "For the past 10 years, our nation’s kids have been bombarded with anti-drug messages, and it is these same kids who are experimenting with more drugs. (Ed. note: But, no mention of the funding sources of the PDFA.)

While these ads are well intended, this money could be better spent on programs that are proven effective in reducing drug use, such as after-school programs and treatment on demand."

Hedrick, needless to say, disagreed.

"There is simply no more cost-effective way" to deter drug use, he added, "than by investing 1 percent of the federal anti-drug budget in this public-private partnership."

Still, Hedrick said, "the proof will be in the pudding." The partnership is awaiting the results of research from the 12 test markets, which are expected sometime in the fall, he said. There will also be research to evaluate the effectiveness of the national paid campaign.

Other organizations are also offering their assistance.

And the Advertising Council in New York—the nonprofit organization that coordinates public service campaigns for the agency and media industries—will serve as a clearinghouse for matching public service advertising nationally.

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company