Nothing? –
May 8, 2018 – Politicians on the left and the right are calling for an anti-addiction ad campaign aimed at the opioid epidemic. The airwaves of history are littered with previous anti-drug efforts – some of which had the opposite of the intended effect. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said Congress ought to fund a new campaign – assuming it can learn from costly mistakes of the past, like ‘Just Say No’. “That didn’t work very well,” he said, “but when there was a real focus and when communities and government listened to the experts on anti-smoking we were able in a whole lot of ways to dramatically drop the rate of smoking in this country.” So, if the United States does fund new advertising aimed at addiction, what should it look like? We turned to advertising and addiction experts to find out if there’s a recipe for success and failure. Two iconic ads serve as evidence of both. “This is your brain,” says a man in his kitchen while holding an egg. He proceeds to crack it over a frying pan, and as it sizzles, he turns back to the camera to say, “this is your brain on drugs.”
