News

Feds use Super Bowl to fight Rx drug abuse Ads warn parents of danger lurking in their own medicine chests

By Angeljean Chiaramida
Staff writer
Published: February 2, 2008

At $2.7 million for a 30-second slot, a commercial running during the Super Bowl comes in as the most expensive ad space anytime, anywhere.

But on Sunday night, when the undefeated Patriots take their position on the field of combat to battle the Giants, more people will be watching than any other time, anywhere in the world.

Among the ads will be one that tackles a heartbreaking issue that has cost the lives of several people in Greater Newburyport — abuse of prescription drugs.

Nationwide, more teens are abusing prescription drugs than any other illicit drug, except marijuana. Locally and nationwide, prescription drug abuse has killed more residents than heroin. In Seabrook alone, four young men died between March 2005 and February 2006 from abusing prescription drugs. In Essex County, of 62 recent deaths attributed to drug overdoses, 30 to 40 included the involvement of some type of prescription drugs, Essex County District Attorney spokesman Steve O'Connell said.

The ad will launch the new federal effort to educate parents about the dangers of youth prescription drug abuse.

"Super Bowl ads cover everything from the big guys — like Bud, Pepsi and Coke, to a formerly small company like Monster.com, which made its bones a few years back by running Super Bowl ads," said Al Sprague, president of BGG Advertising in Manchester, N.H. "The Super Bowl's a good place for companies who want to make a big splash with a limited budget."

Compared to Bud, Coke and Pepsi, the national public awareness campaign's budget to educate parents about the addicting and killing power of the drugs right in their own home isn't large. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy will leverage $14 million to generate nearly $30 million of advertising through a collaboration with the Partnership for a Drug Free America.

This is the first paid television advertising targeting parents in nearly two years, according to the ONDCP. Campaign mouths are sealed as to exactly how much the Super Bowl ad is costing, but rumor has it that the campaign got a great deal.

"We definitely are paying the low end of speculated published rates," said Laura-Ashley Overdyke, who is spearheading the prescription drug initiative for the national youth anti-drug media campaign. "We can only afford one in the Super Bowl, but two ads will start running in equal rotation in parent-targeted media for the next two months."

For law enforcement officials regionwide, the ads are seen as a great tool to reach an immense audience of parents who won't be watching the ads alone.

"Parents will be watching the game with their kids, and these ads can open a dialogue between parents and their kids on the issue," said Det. Lt. Elaine Gill of the Massachusetts State Police. "With all the potential situations from which kids can access prescription drugs (for recreational use), the most dangerous source is sitting right down the hall in the bathrooms of our homes."

The education effort mounted by the ONDCP doesn't leave parents on their own after the commercials alert them to the dangers in their own home. At www.theantidrug.com Web site, parents can get more information — including talking points — to use with their kids.

And the danger is more prevalent than most parents believe, according to DEA Spokesman Special Agent Tony Pettigrew, who is also a father and a Newburyport resident. Although law enforcement is well aware of this problem, he said, most parents are not well-educated about it. The ads will fill a need.

Pettigrew offers the scenario of teen "pharm parties," which are a step up from teen beer parties. At pharm parties, each kid brings one or a few pills (pharmaceuticals) they've found and taken from their parents or friends or relatives house. All the pills are tossed into a hat no matter what they are, and the kids reach in and indiscriminately swallow what ever they grab, often with a mouthful of alcohol.

The cavalier way kids are taking powerful prescription drugs is chilling, but unfortunately true.

"Kids are curious," Seabrook police Chief Patrick Manthorn said. "They find pills in their parents medicine chests and figure if their parents are taking them, they must be safe. They aren't. They're killing people."

When Seabrook police Sgt. Mark Preston — a former N.H. Drug Task Force member — heard about the ads, he thought it was a great idea, given the large audience the Super Bowl garners. And considering the toll that prescription drug abuse is taking among every socioeconomic level in society, Preston thinks it's about time a major effort of this kind was mounted.

Preston and Sprague only had one concern after viewing the ads. They feared the information in them could be considered a "how to" plan for kids who want to get these drugs.

Pettigrew said that's always a concern, but in this case the pros outweigh the cons.

"The prescription drug risk is already real in this area," Pettigrew said. "Nobody buys his or her first oxycodone or methadone or Vicadin pill on the street. They're getting them from their own homes or a friend who got it from his home."