Partnership For A Drug-free America: INTERVENTION

Credits & Description:

Advertiser: PARTNERSHIP FOR A DRUG FREE CANADA
Agency: BBDO TORONTO, PROXIMITY CANADA
Category: Special Build
Advertising campaign: INTERVENTION
Senior Print Production Manager: Ellie Lee (Proximity Canada)
Account Supervisor: Chuck Blumberg (BBDO Toronto)
Copywriter: Jeff Middleton (Proximity Canada)
Photographer: Daniel Ehrenworth
VP/Creative Director: Rene Rouleau (Proximity Canada)
SVP/Creative Director: Scott Pinkney (Proximity Canada)
Art Director: Stuart Thursby (Proximity Canada)

Execution
Because of the perceived “innocence” of prescription drugs, parents often don’t even know this is happening, or worse – they deny the possibility. Rather than just telling them, we wanted to show parents that, by not being aware, they could be playing a role in their kids’ drug use.As we all know, the best ads are the ones that truly draw the person in. This ad not only draws the person in, but the ad is not even complete until the person participates. And by filling in the visual, that person gets the message specifically directed at them.

Implementation
Across select Toronto restaurant restrooms, mirror cling ads were placed to serve as a wakeup call to parents that they, in fact, could be playing a role in their kids’ drug use. It’s one thing to see an ad that says this, it’s quite another when our target actually completes the visual for the ad. In this way, the ads themselves served as an intervention for the parents with the message:“More and more teens are using prescription drugs to get high. Most of them say they steal them from home. Are you part of the problem?”

Client Brief Or Objective
In a Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) study, 20% of teens said they took prescription drugs to get high, and 75% of those teens stole them from home. Our challenge was to raise awareness to parents that their kids might be taking their prescription drugs for recreational use.

Outcome
•Thousands exposed to the piece firsthand in select restaurants frequented by our target•National PR coverage (Applied Arts, Marketing Magazine)•Over 100,000 Twitter/Facebook impressions (the piece was tweeted and retweeted, liked, shared and commented on)•Over 200,000 earned impressions nationwide