Media Agencies: NEWS MAKER

Ed Maibach, 39, co-directs Porter Novelli’s national social-marketing practice and manages the D.C.-based research department. Maibach directs the development of the communications and media plans for the government’s $1 billion anti-drug campaign. He has served as senior social marketing counselor to many of PN’s largest clients, including the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Mental Health and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

CAREER: Maibach was assistant professor and director for Health and Risk Communication in the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, where he was principal investigator on many federal research grants in the areas of HIV and cancer prevention.

on anti-drug advertising: “Selling anti-drug attitudes and behaviors to kids is analogous to selling them consumer products–only much harder. It requires direction from the behavioral sciences, the insights of world-class consumer research and consistently brilliant executions.”

a drop in the bucket The government’s $175 million anti-drug campaign for 1998 is barely
more than 1 percent of the $16 billion federal budget allocated to fight drugs in the 1998 fiscal year.