NCJ Number
179035
Date Published
October 1999
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This update on the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign describes various activities that have involved the use of public media to bring an anti-drug message to youth.
Abstract
One section of this update describes the development of an anti-drug education curriculum guide for middle-school educators that uses articles from The New York Times to bring to youth real-life material relevant to the anti-drug message. Also described in this update is the new direction for the Media Campaign unveiled by President Clinton and Director Barry McCaffrey (Office of National Drug Control Policy) at a White House ceremony on August 2, 1999. They explained the broad outlines of a master strategy for Phase III of the Media Campaign, which will create new advertising with highly focused themes while using "branding" and "flighting" strategies to maximize advertising impact on target audiences. The ceremony also unveiled a new series of parent-focused ads via TV, radio, and newspapers as well as the Internet, video games, movies, in-classroom cable, after-school activities, sports, and special events. The intent is that everywhere youth go during every part of the day they will see the message that drugs are wrong, illegal, and dangerous. Other aspects of the Media Campaign profiled in this update are the development of two new anti-drug interactive websites on the Internet, a panel that challenged journalists to examine their role in influencing youth, review of a study that found the parental role to be influential in preventing their children from using drugs, and the use of anti-drug messages at the 1999 ESPN X-games.