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Stop Overdose BC

Also: #StopOverdoseBC · Stop Overdose

British Columbia Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions anti-stigma campaign launched in early 2018 during the province's drug toxicity emergency. It showed people who use drugs as co-workers, friends and family to challenge stereotypes and encourage conversations, with the Vancouver Canucks as a partner.

Years
2018
Country
Canada
Topic
DrugsOpioids
Asks people to
Seek helpTalk to someone
Strategy
Stigma reductionTestimonial
Channel
OutdoorSocial (paid)TV
Audience
General public
Mainstream BC residents; imagery deliberately featured people who use drugs in more privileged social positions (e.g. labelled 'co-worker').

Evidence

ObservationalMixed

Sponsor-commissioned Insights West tracking surveys of BC adults (baseline Dec 2017; post-wave 1 Apr 2018; Jul 2018; final Sep 2019) obtained by FOI: a small early drop in negative attitudes, then between Jul 2018 and Sep 2019 a statistically significant rise in agreement that 'people who use drugs have made poor choices and deserve what they get', and a significant fall in agreement that people who use drugs 'could be people who live next door, people I work with, or in my family' (Greto 2023 thesis). Campaign developers emphasised recall. A document analysis of the development records found developers avoided images of marginalized people who use drugs in favour of White, middle-class portrayals (Greto & Neufeld 2024).

Sponsor (who paid)

Credits (who made it)

  • Traction Creative Creative, 2017-2018 source
  • Insights West Research evaluation, 2017-2019 source
  • Kirk McLean Individual, 2018 source

Executions (individual ads)

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. Greto T, Neufeld SD. Ignored inequities: Critical analysis of the pre-launch development of British Columbia's "Stop Overdose" campaign. Int J Drug Policy 2024;131:104546 history · 2024 · DOI 10.1016/j.drugpo.2024.104546 · PMID 39178605
  2. Greto T. Ignored Inequities: The Case of British Columbia's "Stop Overdose" Anti-Stigma Campaign (MA thesis, Brock University, 2023) evaluation · 2023
  3. Government of BC news release 2018MMHA0001-000113 sponsor · 2018
  4. StopOverdoseBC print resources (PAN) archive · 2018
  5. StopOverdoseBC.ca campaign site (Wayback, Feb 2018) archive · 2018

Research notes

Launched 29 Jan 2018. Campaign site stopoverdosebc.ca / stopoverdose.gov.bc.ca now redirects to HelpStartsHere (helpstartshere.gov.bc.ca, checked 2026-10-22). Credits checked 2026-10-22 against fetched pages: Kirk McLean (BC government release, 2018: 'campaign ambassador Kirk McLean, retired Vancouver Canucks goaltender'); Traction Creative ('The BC MMHA partnered with marketing specialists from a firm called Traction Creative to produce the "Stop Overdose" campaign', Greto 2023 thesis, from FOI records); Insights West (named as author of the post-wave evaluation surveys, same thesis). Years on executions are approximate from YouTube listing ages (GovernmentofBC channel); the 2019 BC Lions partnership extended the sports-team ambassador approach. FOI records cited in the thesis include media plans with roll-out and refresh costs (not public). Successor provincial campaign: ca-bc-toxic-drugs-are-circulating (2021). Extended 2026-10-22 for #17. An example of the 'people like you' anti-stigma strategy, with sponsor tracking data suggesting stigma measures worsened over the campaign period. Site status 2026-10-22: redirects (stopoverdosebc.ca goes to the general HelpStartsHere mental-health hub); Wayback copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20180201005922/http://stopoverdosebc.ca:80/.

Record cases/stop-overdose-bc.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign