#StateWithoutStigMA

Research notes

US-MA. Taxonomy gap: no strategy value for stigma reduction. Earlier MA DPH opioid campaign "Stop Addiction in its Tracks" (2015) could be a separate record. Checked 2026-10-22: Somerville Times (3 Jan 2021) confirms the new phase ran on TV, billboards, digital and social media and hand-sanitizer-station displays, with a $575,000 media buy through the end of February 2021 paid by the SAMHSA State Opioid Response grant; no vendor named. Unverified (no page found that credits an agency): the 2015 and 2020 creative. Executions: the three 2020 spots were uploaded to the MassDPH YouTube channel on 30 Nov 2020 ('When we stop the stigma, we support recovery from addiction'); the 2015 TV ad is undated there. Testimonial videos on the same channel from about 2016 (Stephanie's, Anthony's, Sue's, Mike's and Cotto's stories) may belong to the 2015-16 wave but are not labeled as such, so they are left out. No settlement funding found. mass.gov blocks direct fetches (403); pages read via Wayback. Ad library search: "Massachusetts Department of Public Health", "#StateWithoutStigMA". Procurement search 2026-10-22: Massachusetts CTHRU spending (dataset pegc-naaa) shows DPH payments from appropriation 45129093 'Massachusetts State Opioid Response (SOR)' under object codes E13 Advertising / HH3 Media Design to Argus Communications Inc (FY2020 USD 897,069; FY2021 1,747,209; FY2022 1,547,295; FY2023 2,663,614) and CauseMedia Inc (FY2021 USD 1,904,784); both are possible vendors for the SOR-funded 2020-21 phase; CauseMedia also received SAPT block grant advertising payments in FY2015 (USD 1,074,293) and FY2016 (USD 792,290), a possible vendor for the 2015 launch, but payments carry no campaign name, so neither is credited. Evaluation links reviewed 2026-10-22: removed three HEALing Communities Study papers (Lewis 2024, Lewis 2026, Luster 2025); they evaluate the HCS campaigns, not this state campaign (Luster's comparator was unnamed statewide messages).