Pubdate: Thu, 16 May 2002
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Contact:  2002 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst 
Newspaper
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: Ken Guggenheim, Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/campaign.htm (ONDCP Media Campaign)

ANTI-DRUG GROUP: WE TOLD YOU SO

Critics Had Warned Two Years Ago That New Ads Would Fail

WASHINGTON -- The group that produces most of the White House's anti-drug 
ads said Wednesday it warned of problems in the government's $180 million 
ad campaign back in 2000, but its concerns were not heeded. The Partnership 
for a Drug-Free America responded to a survey that found no evidence the ad 
campaign has reduced teen drug use. President Bush's top drug policy 
adviser, John Walters, has warned the program will end if it is not improved.

Steve Pasierb, the group's executive director, said the ad campaign was 
working well until two years ago. It bogged down in government bureaucracy, 
spending on advertising dropped and producers were told to make ads that 
were too subtle to have an impact.

"It was working. They changed it. It ain't working. Gee, I wonder why," he 
said.

The group is a nonprofit coalition of media professionals who have donated 
most of the ads used in the campaign.

In an Oct. 2, 2000, letter to former drug policy director Barry McCaffrey, 
the group said that although the advertising campaign has slowed preteen 
marijuana use, "it has been less effective with older teens, either in 
reducing marijuana use or in driving down use of other dangerous drugs."

It said the campaign was providing too many messages in too short a time to 
be effective. It also said the office was constantly reducing the portion 
of its $180 million budget used to buy air time.

Tom Riley, a spokesman for Walters, said he was not familiar with the 
letter. Walters took office last December.

Robert Weiner, who was McCaffrey's spokesman, said he had been aware of the 
group's concerns and believed some had been addressed.

Riley said the new study, by the private research firm Westat and the 
University of Pennsylvania, is the most comprehensive in examining the ad 
campaign's overall effectiveness.

Of the decreased purchase of air time, Riley said money has been used for 
other media, such as brochures and the Internet, to convey the anti-drug 
message.

He also said the office was no longer taking a subtle tone in its anti-drug 
messages, noting the only media campaign launched by Walters has been a 
series of ads linking drugs to terrorism.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom