NATION UNLEASHES ANTI-DRUG AD BLITZ

Aim is message U.S. can't ignore

Americans are going to be hit with anti-drug messages at every turn. With
Richmond area resident Deborah Padgett Barr at his side in Atlanta,
President Clinton yesterday announced a major federal government initiative
to combat illegal drug use.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Mark L. Earley stood at a news conference in
downtown Richmond doing his part to help kick off the latest national
anti-drug campaign.

The $195 million government budget rivals the advertising campaigns of
American Express, Nike and Sprint. It takes a huge step beyond the old "This
is your brain on drugs" message of a decade ago.

The ad campaign, a five-year project given a bipartisan send-off yesterday
in Atlanta by Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, could turn into a $1
billion government investment in stopping teen drug use.

"These ads were designed to knock America upside the head and get America's
attention and empower all of you," Clinton told an audience largely composed
of children, clusters of them sporting Boy Scout and Girl Scout uniforms.

He recalled his own brother, Roger, battling a cocaine addiction. "What kind
of fool am I that I didn't know what was going on? . . . There's somebody
like my brother back at your school who's a good kid, just a little lost,"
Clinton said.

Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who heads Clinton's drug-control policy
office, called the unprecedented federal campaign "an effort to talk to a
generation that started to get the wrong message." In a 1997 national
survey, half of high school seniors and nearly one-third of eighth-graders
reported using illegal drugs at least once.

Beginning yesterday in 75 major newspapers including the Richmond
Times-Dispatch and on the four major TV networks, parents and a target youth
audience between the ages of 9 and 18 started being bombarded by provocative
anti-drug ads produced gratis by some of Madison Avenue's premier ad
agencies. The goal is to hit the average family at least four times a week
either through TV, radio, newspapers, billboards or the Internet.

One of the spots is a spinoff of the fried egg ad popularized during the
Partnership for a Drug-Free America's 11-year campaign, with its Reagan-era
slogan "Just Say No." The updated version, meant to dramatize the effects of
heroin use, shows a Winona Ryder lookalike shatter an egg and her whole
kitchen with a frying pan.

That ad already has been running in 12 test cities where it generated a 300
percent increase in calls to a national clearinghouse of information on drug
use, McCaffrey said.

In Richmond, Tim Bowring, executive director of the Metro Richmond Coalition
Against Drugs, began the news conference with a story about Barr. She lost
her daughter to a heroin overdose two years ago and later started "Mothers
Without Children," a national educational and support group.

Bowring also cited statistics to try to bring home the danger of heroin. He
said that in the past 22 months, seven adolescents in Hanover County have
died of heroin overdoses. The sheriff there recently arrested 25 young
adults and charged them with drug dealing, some with selling heroin to
minors, Bowring said.

Bowring described the anti-drug ad campaign as "the largest social marketing
campaign ever undertaken by the federal government." He said that with
private contributions, including advertising time and space, the financing
should be $52 billionover five years.

Early also cited statistics during yesterday's news conference.

"According to the Partnership for a Drug Free American, since 1991, the
number of eighth-graders using marijuana has increased more than 126
percent. During this time, the number of 10th-graders using marijuana has
increased by 110 percent, and the number of seniors using marijuana has
increased 58 percent.

"As the father of six children I find these figures to be very disturbing
and very frightening."

Phase 1 of the program was a $195 million campaign in 12 pilot cities. Phase
2 began yesterday, with the campaign going coast to coast. "By October 1998
we expect to begin the third and final phase," he said. That will include
advertising, partnerships with civic and professional groups, Internet and
interactive media, media outreach, entertainment and sports industry
initiatives and corporate sponsorship.

"We expect to witness decreases in drug use, especially among children ages
13 and younger, within two years," Bowring said.

Not everyone supports the campaign, though.

The Lindesmith Center, a national research project of philanthropist George
Soros, who supports free clean needles for intravenous drug users and
legalized marijuana for medical use, issued a statement saying the money
would be better spent on after-school programs and drug treatment.

In Washington, Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., who wants to run for president,
criticized the new effort, saying: "Hardened drug criminals have no fear of
TV and radio ads. . . . The nation would be much better served by putting
more resources into busting and prosecuting drug criminals."

Staff writer Gordon Hickey contributed to this report.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett