The White House has partnered with a group of internet companies, television media organizations and two nonprofits, Truth Initiative and the Ad Council, to launch a series of advertisements aimed at deterring Americans, particularly youth, from abusing and misusing opioids.
The opioid awareness ads feature true stories about young adults who took extreme actions to obtain opioids to feed their addictions, including a young woman who intentionally crashed her car into a dumpster, a young man who deliberately slammed his arm in a door and another young man who purposely crushed his hand with a hammer.
The ads warn that opioid dependence can happen after just five days, telling viewers to "Know the truth. Spread the truth."
The commercials are scheduled to appear on TV and online, including social media platforms, with media space donated by Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal Media LLC, VICE Media LLC, Time Warner Inc.'s Turner Broadcasting System Inc., Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc., and Alphabet Inc.'s Google Inc. and YouTube LLC, officials told reporters during a White House media call.
The ad space could be worth $30 million or more, Lisa Sherman, president and CEO of the Ad Council, said on the call.
The Ad Council is behind the successful Smokey Bear forest fire prevention public service ads, the "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk" and "A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste" alcohol and drug abuse campaigns. Truth Initiative — established as part of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between major U.S. tobacco companies and 46 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and five territories — is responsible for several high-profile anti-tobacco ads.
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, or ONDCP, also is providing funding for the ads. But its deputy director, Jim Carroll, who has been nominated to lead the agency, was unable to say how much the administration was spending on the campaign.
Targeted audience
Officials said the ad campaign was fully grounded in research, evaluation and expert input.
"We've tested over 150 different message possibilities and pretested all of the advertising and the executions themselves. We know that these messages are motivating to young people," said Robin Koval, president and CEO of Truth Initiative.
The goal of the ads is to show young Americans the dangers of misusing opioids, how quickly someone can become addicted to the drugs and the extreme lengths that people go to feed their addiction, said Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump.
"Prevention is a critical component," she said. "And as the evidence shows, a significant percentage of youth and young adults have the potential to develop serious addiction to opioids following legal prescription for dental work, surgery and other injuries."
Conway said the ads were targeted mostly to Americans ages 18 to 24.
Sherman said the campaign's "powerhouse" media and internet partners would be developing specific strategies and plans to ensure that the messages are reaching the right audience, in the right way and at the right time.
"I think that will look different for each of the media outlets," she said.
The stories Americans will see in the ads "sadly are not unique," ONDCP's Carroll said.
A common thread he hears from many of the parents who have lost children to opioid abuse is that they did not know.
"They didn't know that the pills their doctor prescribed could be addictive," he said. "They didn't know that the opioid pills they bought on the street, after becoming addicted, could be counterfeit pills made with fentanyl. They didn't know that the overwhelming majority of new heroin users misused prescription opioids first. And they didn't know where to turn when they needed help."
The new public education campaign is designed to close that knowledge gap, "so we can turn the tide on this crisis and save lives," Carroll added. "Every American needs to know the truth about opioids so we can spread the truth."
Legislation, FDA actions
The ads come as the House prepares to vote next week on the first round of dozens of bills that were sent to the floor by the Energy and Commerce Committee last month to address the U.S. opioid crisis. Measures from other House committees also are expected to come up for a vote in the chamber this summer.
The Senate has yet to schedule a vote on a large legislative package from the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and measures drawn up by the Finance and Judiciary panels, including a bill advanced out of the latter committee June 7 from Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., that would codify provisions of current Drug Enforcement Administration regulations on suspicious orders and create greater cooperation between the federal government and states in identifying and stopping those packages.
In addition, the awareness campaign comes ahead of a June 27 one-day summit hosted by the Food and Drug Administration, which has invited a number executives from major internet search engines, social media platforms, domain name registries and online marketplaces to join regulators, academic researchers, and leaders from government entities and advocacy groups to discuss ways to collaboratively take stronger action to combat the U.S. opioid crisis by reducing the availability of the drugs sold illicitly online.
On June 5, the FDA warned operators of 53 websites to stop selling illicit opioids, such as tramadol and oxycodone, or face seizure or an injunction to shut them down.
