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National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign Summary

NCJ Number
169271
Date Published
December 1997
Length
37 pages
Annotation
This summary of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign profiles its three phases, which use various media to educate and enable youth to reject illegal drugs as well as alcohol and tobacco.
Abstract
The comprehensive media campaign strategy emphasizes paid advertising and also includes the full range of media forms and techniques that influence today's youth. The reach of advertising will be supported and enhanced through news coverage, Internet and "new media" initiatives, partnership activities with private corporations and community groups, and initiatives with the entertainment industry that affect images and messages that children receive about drugs. The campaign will be conducted in three phases. Each phase builds on work completed in earlier phases and provides continuous feedback to ensure campaign effectiveness. Phase I, the "learning lab" phase, will begin airing anti-drug messages that target children between the ages of 9 and 17, as well as adults who influence them (parents, teachers, mentors, etc.); this will begin in January 1998. Ads will air in 12 selected cities over a 4-month period. Phase II, the "validation" phase, will expand the anti-drug advertising component to reach audiences nationwide. It will use the broadcast cable network as well as local spot television, radio, print, and outdoor media. Phase II will begin in May 1998. Phase III, the "implementation and continued validation" phase, will launch a fully integrated media campaign that uses all media forms and the most effective communications strategies and approaches available to influence youth; this will begin by September 1998. This summary lists the components of each of the three phases and reports the projected expenditures of fiscal 1998 appropriated funds. Appended diagram of the 5-year campaign, a description of the media campaign planning and development process, an overview of the conceptual development of Phase I, and a description of the evaluation of the campaign