Pubdate: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 Source: Advertising Age (US) Copyright: 2003 Crain Communications Inc. Contact: http://www.adage.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2258 Author: Ira Teinowitz Cited: Office of National Drug Control Policy ( www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov ) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/campaign.htm (ONDCP Media Campaign) WHITE HOUSE PLACES ANTI-DRUG SUPER BOWL ADS Continue Campaign's Marijuana and Terror Themes WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy will run two ads during Sunday's Super Bowl broadcast, as well as two on the pregame show on Walt Disney Co.'s ABC. Two of the Super Bowl spots are new work from Interpublic Group of Cos.' McCann-Erickson Worldwide, New York, for the Partnership for a Drug Free America. The ads are part of a "negative consequences" campaign meant to show that marijuana is not a "harmless" drug. In one spot, a 40-ish couple is shown looking worried about a pregnancy, but it turns out it is their daughter who is pregnant, who had unprotected sex after using marijuana. Shift in direction During last year's Super Bowl, the drug office debuted ads that suggested illegal drug use supports terrorism. While new ads that debuted in September returned to that theme, the campaign began a major shift in the direction as the drug office put the bulk of its budget behind discouraging marijuana use by young people. This is the first ad in that vein from McCann-Erikson; prior anti-marijuana ads were done by Publicis Groupe's Leo Burnett USA, Chicago. In one of the other new Super Bowl spots, from WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, New York, a man riding on a subway car sees the ghosts of victims of drug crimes who tell him the dealers were fighting about his money. "Drug money supports terrible things," the ad says. While the Partnership produces most drug office ads, the first drugs-and-terror ads were produced by the drug office's own agency, Ogilvy, without any involvement by the Partnership. The Partnership has declined to produce terror-related ads and has questioned their success, and the latest ads were again produced independently by Ogilvy. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom