As a major influence in the lives of young people, the entertainment community is in a unique and powerful position to communicate to America's youth that most kids are not using drugs.

The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, working with the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, is engaging the entertainment industry as part of the solution. The Campaign's strategy leverages pop culture's visibility, credibility, and influence with audiences. The goal is to surround teens with vital drug use prevention messages, provide adults with practical information to help them raise drug-free kids, and encourage accurate portrayal of drug issues in entertainment media so that pop culture does not perpetuate myths about drugs and drug use.

• Utilize popular culture to disseminate drug prevention messages and themes.
• Dispel myths and misconceptions of drug-use issues.
• Encourage accurate depictions of drug-use issues, including consequences of drug abuse, and de-normalize the image of drug use on TV, in popular music, and in film.
• Provide information and resources on substance abuse to parents, youth-influential adults, and policymakers via entertainment media.

• Provide resources and information on substance abuse to the creative community via briefings, roundtables, special events, collateral materials, access to experts, and other technical assistance on issues related to substance use.
• Engage celebrities who are positive role models to extend the reach of Campaign messages and strategies.
• Participate in and host entertainment industry events.
• Develop public service messages in collaboration with major media outlets.
• Conduct content analysis and other research to determine how entertainment media depict substance abuse issues.

• The Campaign has held numerous briefings with the Hollywood entertainment community on Campaign themes and messages to encourage accurate depictions of substance use and abuse in TV, film, and music.
• The Campaign brings together producers, writers, directors, and creative executives from the production companies, television networks and major industry associations for workshops and roundtables on substance abuse issues in New York and Los Angeles.
• Participation of celebrities in the Campaign has been arranged for PSAs, online chats, special events and other promotional activities.
• The Campaign is forging important partnerships with major entertainment industry organizations.

• All of the major television networks, including ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and the WB, as well as cable outlets such as ESPN, MTV, and Oxygen Media have supported the Campaign and its messages through donations of airtime, inclusion in programming production of celebrity PSAs, and hosting of industry roundtables.
  
  
• A growing list of television programs highly-rated among teens have incorporated strategic, research-based information on illicit drugs and drug use.
  
  
• A number of entertainment industry organizations have worked with the Campaign in a variety of capacities, including The Hollywood Reporter, Sony Music, Arista Records, Oxygen Media, the Writers Guild Foundation, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Sparks, and Marvel and D.C. Comics.
  
  
• A variety of celebrities have appeared in PSAs that support the goals of the Campaign and/or have spoken publicly about Campaign themes and goals. Youth and parents nationwide have heard celebrity voices from a range of entertainment genre, including: TV (James Van Der Beek and Katie Holmes from Dawson's Creek, Eriq La Salle of NBC's ER, Jenna Elfman of ABC's Dharma & Greg, Lisa Nicole Carter of Fox's Ally McBeal, Marc Blucas of WB's Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Hector Elizando of Chicago Hope, and cast members from the WB series Charmed, Seventh Heaven and Popular), film (Academy Award Nominee Michael Clark Duncan), popular music (*NSYNC, Dream, Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, The Dixie Chicks, MTV VJ Tyrese), amateur and professional sports (U.S. Women's Soccer Team; Olympic Gold Medallist Tara Lipinski, Mike Modano of the NHL Champion Dallas Stars, Tiki Barber of the New York Giants), comedy (Howie Mandel), and pop culture (Miss America 1999 Nicole Johnson, Marvel Comics' Spiderman).
  
  
• Campaign themes, issues, and strategies have been incorporated into the agendas of entertainment industry and association events including "Children's Media Summit: Developing Guidelines for Creative Professionals," which brought together representatives from studios and networks, the Parent Teachers Association, and panel discussions at events hosted by the Television Critics Association, the National Association of Television Programming Executives, and the Writers Guild Foundation.
  
  
• The Campaign has hosted a series of roundtables for television writers and producers on a variety of topics, including Ecstasy, steroid use among teens, inhalants abuse, and the links between substance abuse and teen pregnancy. The Campaign is currently developing a Web site specifically designed to provide online informational resources for TV writers, feature writers, and journalists.

For further information about the Campaign, visit www.mediacampaign.org

7/2000

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