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CNN Live Today

Tackling Illegal Drugs

Aired January 30, 2004 - 11:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: The federal government launching a new anti-drug ad campaign during the Super Bowl Sunday night, when lots of eyeballs will be aimed at television.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: If your friend was in trouble, you'd help them, wouldn't you?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: John Walters directs the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He joins us in Washington this morning to talk about these powerful ads.

Mr. Walters, thanks for being with us today.

JOHN WALTERS, WHITE HOUSE DRUG POLICY DIR.: My pleasure.

COLLINS: In looking that public service announcement that we will see coming up again on Sunday, what was the thinking behind it? What are they trying to do? Obviously a little bit of shock here.

WALTERS: Yes, we're trying to harness the power of peers and parents to stop drug use. We know from, unfortunately, 20 years of hard experience, kids start with their friends using drugs. We want to encourage more kids -- some do it already -- for kids to stop their friends from using drugs, to stop the spread, what is a start to addiction for too many and all kinds of other problems in school and life.

COLLINS: What successes have you had in the past? We have been seeing ads, not exactly like this obviously, but of course everyone remembers, this is your brain, this is your brain on drugs. Some pretty powerful ads in the past as well.

WALTERS: Yes, we're trying to make these as powerful as possible. We're doing more testing. We've been fortunate the last two years; we've had an 11 percent decline in student drug use. We haven't seen that in a decade. And, in fact, when we asked the kids in these surveys we just released, what effect does advertising have on you, between 70 percent and 80 percent of them who didn't use said that advertising was an important to -- a very, very important factor in their and their peers' decisions not to use.

COLLINS: Have ads like these ever been used, though, during a super bowl? We've been talking all day about the cost of those 30- second spots. $2.2 million, I believe, for 30 seconds, obviously a very important topic here. But it leads some people, it could lead some people to think that drug use is on the rise, and this is something that is now being done in a desperate attempt to really focus in on kids.

WALTERS: Well, drug use is on the decline. We hope we can make that clear. But we are not satisfied. We want it to go down faster. That's why we're doing this. We began using the super bowl two years ago. We used the Super Bowl last year. It's a great story here. Our campaign requires those who give us spots to give us two spots for every one we buy. That's the way Congress set up the law. So we get the best bargain, as "The Wall Street Journal" said on Madison Avenue, and we get the largest co-viewing of parents and kids which will reinforce our message anywhere, anytime during the year. It's the best value for the dollar and it gets out message out to more of the target audience, teens and parents who are will talk to their teens about these ads. That's why we've used it.

COLLINS: And your projection, will there be some sort of test done or ganging of what the success could be after Sunday then when these ads do run? And will they continue, I would imagine, after the Super Bowl?

WALTERS: Right, the Super Bowl will launch as the series of ads, both some targeted at parents. You showed one of them targeted at teens, and that will launch the regular campaign. The overall campaign is $145 million this year. Again, we get a one for one match, so that will not quite double the overall coverage of the program, and we will begin regular rotation in both youth markets and with parents on large broadcast after that, and we'll also follow up with print media. So we do an evaluation every year. We don't do a spot evaluation just after the Super Bowl, but it will be captured in our overall annual evaluation.

We're hoping this will help strengthen what parents do, what communities do, what people in schools do. It's part of giving an educational message that makes everything work better.

COLLINS: Can't imagine anyone disagreeing with that. John Walters, thanks so much for your time today. Wish you luck with those ads on Sunday.

WALTERS: Thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 30, 2004 - 11:36   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: The federal government launching a new anti-drug ad campaign during the Super Bowl Sunday night, when lots of eyeballs will be aimed at television.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: If your friend was in trouble, you'd help them, wouldn't you?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: John Walters directs the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He joins us in Washington this morning to talk about these powerful ads.

Mr. Walters, thanks for being with us today.

JOHN WALTERS, WHITE HOUSE DRUG POLICY DIR.: My pleasure.

COLLINS: In looking that public service announcement that we will see coming up again on Sunday, what was the thinking behind it? What are they trying to do? Obviously a little bit of shock here.

WALTERS: Yes, we're trying to harness the power of peers and parents to stop drug use. We know from, unfortunately, 20 years of hard experience, kids start with their friends using drugs. We want to encourage more kids -- some do it already -- for kids to stop their friends from using drugs, to stop the spread, what is a start to addiction for too many and all kinds of other problems in school and life.

COLLINS: What successes have you had in the past? We have been seeing ads, not exactly like this obviously, but of course everyone remembers, this is your brain, this is your brain on drugs. Some pretty powerful ads in the past as well.

WALTERS: Yes, we're trying to make these as powerful as possible. We're doing more testing. We've been fortunate the last two years; we've had an 11 percent decline in student drug use. We haven't seen that in a decade. And, in fact, when we asked the kids in these surveys we just released, what effect does advertising have on you, between 70 percent and 80 percent of them who didn't use said that advertising was an important to -- a very, very important factor in their and their peers' decisions not to use.

COLLINS: Have ads like these ever been used, though, during a super bowl? We've been talking all day about the cost of those 30- second spots. $2.2 million, I believe, for 30 seconds, obviously a very important topic here. But it leads some people, it could lead some people to think that drug use is on the rise, and this is something that is now being done in a desperate attempt to really focus in on kids.

WALTERS: Well, drug use is on the decline. We hope we can make that clear. But we are not satisfied. We want it to go down faster. That's why we're doing this. We began using the super bowl two years ago. We used the Super Bowl last year. It's a great story here. Our campaign requires those who give us spots to give us two spots for every one we buy. That's the way Congress set up the law. So we get the best bargain, as "The Wall Street Journal" said on Madison Avenue, and we get the largest co-viewing of parents and kids which will reinforce our message anywhere, anytime during the year. It's the best value for the dollar and it gets out message out to more of the target audience, teens and parents who are will talk to their teens about these ads. That's why we've used it.

COLLINS: And your projection, will there be some sort of test done or ganging of what the success could be after Sunday then when these ads do run? And will they continue, I would imagine, after the Super Bowl?

WALTERS: Right, the Super Bowl will launch as the series of ads, both some targeted at parents. You showed one of them targeted at teens, and that will launch the regular campaign. The overall campaign is $145 million this year. Again, we get a one for one match, so that will not quite double the overall coverage of the program, and we will begin regular rotation in both youth markets and with parents on large broadcast after that, and we'll also follow up with print media. So we do an evaluation every year. We don't do a spot evaluation just after the Super Bowl, but it will be captured in our overall annual evaluation.

We're hoping this will help strengthen what parents do, what communities do, what people in schools do. It's part of giving an educational message that makes everything work better.

COLLINS: Can't imagine anyone disagreeing with that. John Walters, thanks so much for your time today. Wish you luck with those ads on Sunday.

WALTERS: Thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com