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War On Drugs

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Using Advertising to Fight the War on Drugs: The Power of Social Marketing or a Waste of Money?

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This case was written by Professors Michael A. Belch and George E. Belch. It is intended to be used as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation.
The case was compiled from published sources.



In 2003, the U.S. Government will spend over $19.2 billion, about $609 per second, on the War on Drugs.   State and local governments will spend at least another $20 billion. People arrested for drug law violations in 2003 are expected to exceed the 1.5 million arrests of the year 2000, with someone arrested every 20 seconds. – www.drugsense.org
Introduction
Every day, in almost every city and town across America, children are deciding whether to use drugs.   Drug abuse is a process that more often than not begins in childhood.   The younger the person is when he or she begins using drugs, the more likely that other serious problems, including addiction, will follow.   One approach to preventing children from trying and using drugs is by helping them understand the dangers of using them and how to resist pressure from peers.   For nearly two decades, the advertising industry has been tackling the problem of illicit drug use through the Partnership for a Drug Free America (PDFA), which is a private, nonprofit coalition of professionals from the communications industry whose collective mission is to reduce demand for drugs in America.   The U.S. government became involved in the use of advertising to fight the problem of adolescent drug use when the U.S. Congress approved The Media Campaign Act of 1998 which directed the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) to conduct a national media campaign for the...