ONDCP Makes Do With Less

The White House's anti-drug campaign could go dark for a few months and local ads might be cut altogether now that Congress has set its media budget for this year at $150 million, the lowest figure since the effort began in 1998.And with the campaign's effectiveness still in doubt, some congressional insiders question how long the overall anti-drug effort will survive.The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy had been operating with a $180 million budget from 2002, since Congress did not pass a new budget last year. If ONDCP made long-term spending decisions based on that number, it could run out of money before year's end, forcing a brief suspension of the campaign, sources said. Another alternative would be to cut the public relations efforts, handled by Fleishman Hillard. ONDCP declined comment on the budget. The media campaign was among the many federal programs cut back because of President Bush's push to make homeland security a priority. "The speaker would have liked more, but that is all we are going to get," said John Feehery, a rep for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.Some congressional sources said the fact that teens, the campaign's key target, have not shown signs of changing behavior caused lawmakers to make steeper cuts than they might have otherwise. "We have spent over a billion dollars and have seen no movement in drugs among youth," said one congressional source. "I don't think any lawmaker has the guts to kill [the campaign], but they are letting time build the case. The feeling is, give [drug czar John] Walters almost as much as he wants and let him hoist himself on his own petard."Some lawmakers also questioned how receptive the youth audience has been to the tactic of linking drug use with terrorism. ONDCP has said its drugs and terror campaign, from Ogilvy & Mather in New York, was intended not for teens but rather "influencers," such as viewers of the Sunday-morning talk shows where the ads aired. ONDCP has run three such campaigns, with some sources estimating the cost at $20 million. The latest evaluation of the campaign, released in December, found that teens thought the first two spots, which broke during the 2002 Super Bowl, were too exaggerated.Some social marketing experts argue that ONDCP should drop the drugs and terror campaign, drop messages directed at parents and focus exclusively on kids. "I would be hammering away at kids with everything I've got," said one source.ONDCP media campaign director Alan Levitt said the drugs and terror campaign will end after May and that while less emphasis will be placed on parents, they will remain a target. "More of the media buy will be on messages directed at teens," he said. "But the public health community has told us parents are the single most influential factor in a teen's decision to use drugs."Meanwhile, Ogilvy survived one lawmaker's 2002 effort to have it barred from the campaign because it settled civil charges after a federal probe of its billing practices. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., who lost his re-election bid. The effort died with his departure.Congress also did not include in the appropriations bill a requirement advocated by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America that $150 million go exclusively toward the media buy. The Partnership coordinates pro-bono creative contributions to the campaign from a roster of about 40 agencies. President Bush has asked Congress for $170 million for the campaign in 2004.

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ONDCP Makes Do With Less

Wendy Melillo

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Wendy Melillo