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The Truth About Opioids

Opioid misuse prevention campaign unveiled in June 2018 by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Truth Initiative and the Ad Council. Real-life stories of young people who went to extremes to get prescription opioids aimed to prevent misuse and reduce stigma around addiction among teens and young adults.

Years
2018
Country
United States
Topic
DrugsOpioids
Asks people to
Never startTalk to someone
Strategy
Fear appealStigma reductionTestimonial
Channel
Social (organic)Social (paid)TV
Audience
Young adultsYouth
Teens and young adults 18-24 (later 18-25), the age group with the highest rates of opioid misuse.

Evidence

ObservationalUnknown

Truth Initiative cohort of 1,434 young adults in markets with varying exposure (baseline Jun-Sep 2019, follow-up Jul-Aug 2020): high campaign awareness associated with greater campaign-targeted knowledge (OR 2.47, 95% CI 1.58-3.87), lower opioid stigma and higher intention to talk to a friend. Sponsor-affiliated; knowledge and attitudes only, no misuse outcome.

Sponsor (who paid)

  • Ad Council Ad Council (pro bono), campaign producer / distribution
  • White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Federal government, partner/sponsor
  • Truth Initiative Settlement funded, partner/creator

Credits (who made it)

  • Haymaker Creative, 2018 source
  • Schroeder Institute at Truth Initiative Research evaluation source

Executions (individual ads)

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. Rath JM et al. Educating Young Adults about Opioid Misuse: Evidence from a Mass Media Intervention. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2021;19(1):22 evaluation · 2021 · DOI 10.3390/ijerph19010022 · PMID 35010279
  2. ONDCP, Truth Initiative and the Ad Council join forces on national effort to fight opioid misuse (Truth Initiative) sponsor · 2018
  3. With Real-Life Stories, White House Ad Campaign Aims To Prevent Youth Opioid Abuse (NPR) news · 2018
  4. Truth Initiative, Ad Council and US government join forces in national effort to fight opioid misuse (The Drum) news · 2018
  5. Rath JM et al. Early Evidence of an Opioid Education Campaign: A Case Study of Rhode Island. J Public Health Manag Pract evaluation · 2020 · DOI 10.1097/PHH.0000000000001154 · PMID 32235207

Research notes

Truth Initiative tested 150+ candidate messages before launch. Credits checked 2026-10-22 against fetched pages: Haymaker (The Drum, 7 Jun 2018, read via Wayback: spots 'Created by Haymaker and Truth Initiative'); Schroeder Institute (Crossref: IJERPH Dec 2021, authors at the Schroeder Institute at Truth Initiative). Haymaker credit rests on this one report. endYear unknown. A related Rhode Island state adaptation was evaluated separately (Rath et al. 2020, doi 10.1097/PHH.0000000000001154). Checked 2026-10-22 for 2021+ waves (#17): no new national wave of The Truth About Opioids after the 2018-2020 work was found; the truthorange YouTube channel re-posted opioid story spots (e.g. 'Know the truth | Rebekkah's Story', :30 cuts about 2021), whose link to this campaign is not confirmed. The original four spots (Amy, Kyle, Chris, Joe) survive mainly as third-party uploads.

Record cases/the-truth-about-opioids.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign