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Just Plain Killers

“Just Plain Killers”

South Carolina Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services (DAODAS; since 2024 the BHDD Office of Substance Use Services) opioid prevention and education campaign (US-SC), launched January 2018 with a website and TV ads, later extended to fake-pill and fentanyl spots ("Fake Pills Kill", "Hidden Dangers") and naloxone and disposal messaging.

Years
2018–now
Country
United States
Topic
DrugsHarm reductionOpioids
Asks people to
Never startRecognizeSeek helpStart
Strategy
Fear appealService linkSimple instruction
Channel
EventsSocial (organic)Social (paid)TVWebsite
Audience
AdultsGeneral publicYoung adults

Evidence

Self-reportedUnknown

Sponsor reports social-media reach only (e.g. 5,000-7,900 monthly impressions and about 5,500 followers, Oct 2020-Mar 2021, SOR 2.0 mid-year report). No outcome evaluation found.

Sponsor (who paid)

Credits (who made it)

Executions (individual ads)

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. Post and Courier: South Carolina launching public education campaign on opioid crisis with new website and TV ads (Jan 2018) news · 2018
  2. DAODAS: State Opioid Response 2.0 mid-year report (Apr 2021) sponsor · 2021
  3. Soda City Biz Wire: Chernoff Newman takes home most wins at AAF Midlands awards (Mar 2023) news · 2023
  4. Columbia Business Report: Chernoff Newman wins district Gold ADDY and local Best of Social (Apr 2024) news · 2024
  5. BHDD: Fentanyl Prevention Awareness Day highlights dangers of fentanyl and counterfeit pills (2026) sponsor · 2026
  6. Just Plain Killers campaign site sponsor
  7. OSUS YouTube channel archive

Research notes

US-SC. Discovered 2026-10-22 for #17. Credits checked 2026-10-22 against fetched pages: Chernoff Newman (SOR 2.0 mid-year report: second year of the state contract with Chernoff Newman began 29 Jan 2021, Chernoff Newman creates the campaign's social content; AAF Midlands 2023 Silver ADDYs for "Just Plain Killers - Fake Pills" and "Fake Pills Kill" for DAODAS; 2024 Gold ADDY for the DAODAS "Hidden Dangers" fake-pill/fentanyl campaign). Agency for the 2018 launch spots and for the 2026 "Disclaimer" spots not confirmed. Funding: federal opioid grants (SOR); no settlement funding found. Launch month from the Post and Courier article (headline only fetched; paywalled). Executions are from the OSUS YouTube channel; "One Fake Pill" and "A Bit of a Pill" are assigned to this campaign by title (fake-pill theme), not by an explicit label. Years from the channel RSS feed where available. Still running: site live and cited by BHDD in 2026.

Record cases/sc-just-plain-killers.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign