Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Are Anti-Drug Ads Paying Off?

Aired May 15, 2002 - 07:48   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The government has spent more than $900 million over the past five years on ads like this one aimed at keeping kids away from drugs. But are the anti-drug ads paying off?

Well, a report from the National Office of Drug Control Policy due out tomorrow says not only isn't the campaign reducing drug use, it may have inspired some people actually to experiment with drugs.

Joining us now from San Diego on a very early Wednesday morning indeed is the nation's drug czar, John Walter -- good to see you, sir.

JOHN WALTERS, DRUG CZAR: Good to see you again.

ZAHN: Here in New York with me, advertising executive Donny Deutsch -- welcome.

DONNY DUETSCH, CHAIRMAN, DEUTSCH, INC.: Thanks.

ZAHN: Mr. Walters, let's start off by talking about this report that's going to be released tomorrow, and I'm going to put up on the screen some statistics that will reinforce some of what you're going to be talking about. But it was conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse with youths ranging in age from 12 to 18 on their attitudes about drugs and their intentions to use drugs after viewing anti-drug ads. And the study found that girls aged 12 to 13, who didn't use drugs already, were more likely to use marijuana after seeing the ads. How can that be?

WALTERS: Yes. Well, the researchers aren't sure, and they caution about using that particular part of the evaluation and putting too much behind it. But we have some surmises from prevention in the past. Sometimes we answer questions kids don't have. Sometimes we make things matters of curiosity. Sometimes we leave the suggestion that more people are doing it in their age group.

And one of the things we want to do in response to this finding is target the future campaign more toward older teens more effectively to test the message, but also we want to test the messages early on. We did that with the new ads that are not part of this review, the drugs and terror ads released to the Super Bowl. They were the most extensively tested, and they were tested from the early part of the creative process through to the end.

We knew they worked before they went on the air. In the previous parts of the campaign, 60 percent of the ads went on the air untested.

ZAHN: Now, a lot of people would roll their eyes and say, wait a minute. Isn't that common practice for advertising agencies to test any ads before they go on the air? I mean, you're talking about taxpayers' money of almost to the tune of $1 billion here.

WALTERS: Yes, this is where good intentions go awry. The intention with the campaign was to try to minimize the cost and get maximum value, because it is an unusual expenditure for the government.

So in addition to having a one-for-one match for every ad we buy, we get an equivalent amount of free time from the people who provide the time. The creative was just supposed to be supplied -- the content was supposed to be supplied by donations from the advertising industry. That makes it more difficult when they are doing this on a free basis or a pro bono basis to have the kind of involvement and cost that that kind of testing involves.

We changed that process with the drugs and terror ads. We want to do that more directly. We need -- it's a big campaign. It's an important issue. We need to get it right. We need to make sure it works, fix it is our argument of where we have to end it.

ZAHN: All right. Why don't we take a look at another ad to give our audience an idea of why these did or did not work -- let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is Rodney on heroin. Rodney on heroin. Rodney on heroin. Rodney on heroin. Rodney -- that was my friend Rodney.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: All right, Donny, I am looking at this and this is horrifying for me to see the before-and-after of this kid after experimenting with heroin.

DEUTSCH: Sure.

ZAHN: Why didn't that ad work?

DEUTSCH: I don't think that works for a couple of reasons. First off, you know, a lot of psychologists will tell you that the harmfulness of drugs is actually kind of an appeal to young people. They're going to test that. They are going to test danger. I mean, that's why they smoke when they are young.

So the messages over the years of drugs will hurt you, drugs will kill you, I think that goes on deaf ears with kids. I think the new stuff that Mr. Walters was talking about, the stuff that links it to terrorism, to me I think is the first really, really fresh, different, new message that I think really can hit a nerve with kids.

I think tobacco, interestingly enough, for years and years and years was don't smoke. It will cause cancer. Kids didn't care. As I said, that's almost kind of the underneath appeal. They have a new message called truth, where they focus on the marketing manipulation that the tobacco companies are doing, and I think that's very effective.

So I think the good news is there is a new direction. And I think that if Mr. Walters can get all 200 million bucks behind one message -- part of the problem is that there are so many messages out there from celebrities, to just say no to this, to eggs frying, that marketing 101, whether you are selling cars, antiperspirant or fighting drugs, say one thing, bang it, bang it, bang it. So hopefully, they will be on that direction.

ZAHN: So you are essentially saying that this campaign, part of this terrorism campaign wasted almost $1 billion of taxpayers' money.

DEUTSCH: I don't think it wasted -- I don't -- first of all, I think to say that some of it even stimulated drugs is crazy. I think the answers were just not quite sure. There certainly is not any definitive statistic to say it absolutely has been working. But my gut tells me that, you know, overall, it certainly has not been a slam dunk. But my gut also tells me that this new direction, and also they have tested it, I think is something very, very, very powerful.

ZAHN: But the study that's going to come out tomorrow, which Mr. Walters just reinforced, is going to show that in some cases, these 12 and 13 year olds were encouraged to use marijuana. Let's review one of the ads you say think does work, and for a very powerful reason -- let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bomber will get a fake passport.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Other kids do it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I helped to kill a judge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I helped blow up buildings.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My life, my body.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Mr. Walters, you said this was tested over and over again before it went on the air. You're going to go before Congress and ask for almost another $200 million to make more ads like this. Given the fact that the study is going to come out tomorrow to show ads prior to this weren't all that effective, what are your chances of getting this appropriation?

WALTERS: Well, I think people understand that advertising is a very powerful way of educating young and old people in the country, and this is an important issue that we're trying to push back on many messages that young people get in the culture that don't help with the drug problem and drug use. I see parents who want some help in the media on this issue, and this is one way we have tried to do it. But make no mistake, I'm going to tell Congress frankly, we have an accountability agenda. We have to establish credibility in the institutions of government that work here across the board. If this doesn't work, if we can't show we can test it, take a proven product and make it work, we will end it and put the money in other parts of the drug -- the anti-drug effort.

ZAHN: Donny, you get the final word. You say this is a step in the right direction, at least the last prong of this campaign.

DEUTSCH: A step in the right direction. There is something fundamentally wrong if we can't figure out a way with 200 million bucks and the mass media to make a move. We are doing something wrong, and hopefully we're on the right step.

ZAHN: Gentlemen, thank you both for your insights today -- Donny Deutsch and John Walters.

WALTERS: Thanks, Paula.

ZAHN: It's good of you, Mr. Walters, to get up in the middle of the night for us to join us on AMERICAN MORNING to give us a preview of this study that will be announced tomorrow. Good luck to both of you.

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