Anti-Drug Advertising Works

Subrata K. Sen
An egg sizzling in a frying pan as the viewer is told: "This is your brain on drugs." That vivid image was used during a successful anti-drug television campaign created by The Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA) to change societal attitudes about drugs and reduce drug consumption among teens.

"Anti-drug advertising works," according to Subrata K. Sen of the Yale School of Management. Sen, along with colleagues Lauren G. Block of Baruch College, Vicki G. Morwitz of New York University Stern School of Business, and William P. Putsis, Jr. of London Business School co-authored the study: Assessing the Impact of Antidrug Advertising on Adolescent Drug Consumption: Results From a Behavioral Economic Model, which was recently published by The American Journal of Public Health.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of drug-education messages from the PDFA from 1987 to 1990, measuring whether the advertising campaign was associated with a change in adolescents' drug use. The research findings suggest that by 1990 - after three years of anti-drug television advertisements - drug use was reduced by approximately 9%. Additionally, the team observed that the decrease in drug consumption came at a time when anti-drug ads had increasing levels of national media exposure and public visibility. During this timeframe, pro bono media support for anti-drug advertising increased from a low of $115 million in 1987 to a high of $365 million in 1991.