Answer Addiction

Tag: PSA

  • Mike Shinoda, Chester Bennington's Widow Appear In Suicide Prevention PSA

    Mike Shinoda, Chester Bennington's Widow Appear In Suicide Prevention PSA

    The cast of ABC’s “A Million Little Things” also appear in the mental health PSA. 

    The family of Chester Bennington appear in a new suicide prevention PSA, continuing the Linkin Park vocalist’s legacy through mental health advocacy.

    Linkin Park bandmate Mike Shinoda and Bennington’s widow, Talinda Bennington, appear alongside the cast of A Million Little Things, a new ABC drama about losing a friend to suicide. The PSA aired during the premiere of the show last Wednesday (Sept. 26).

    “We lost our fictional friend to suicide,” says actor James Roday, who plays Gary Mendez on the show. “And we lost our very real friend,” says Shinoda.

    Chester Bennington died by suicide in the summer of 2017. He was 41. Since his passing, his widow Talinda has become the face of mental health advocacy and suicide prevention.

    Through social media, Bennington has been able to open a dialogue with grieving fans and promote efforts to raise awareness of the warning signs of depression and suicidal thoughts.

    “The passing of my husband cannot be in vain,” she said this year. “His passing was a catalyst for opening up dialogue with respect to emotional and mental health. Throughout his life, he saved countless lives with his music and philanthropy. And through his death, he continues to save lives by spotlighting the urgent need for a change in our mental health culture.”

    On what would have been her husband’s 42nd birthday this past March, Bennington encouraged fans to learn the Five Signs of Emotional Suffering. She is hoping to “change the culture of mental health” so that people who are struggling, and their family members, can address it openly and feel comfortable to seek help.

    “I am now more educated about [the warning] signs, but they were definitely there: the hopelessness, the change of behavior, isolation,” she said during a CNN town hall with Anderson Cooper in June.

    A Million Little Things is a new show on ABC that confronts the reality of losing a friend to suicide. The cast of friends and family—played by Romany Malco, Grace Park, James Roday, David Giuntoli (whose character Eddie credits his late friend for his recovery) and more—are left to cope with the fact that their friend Jon (played by Ron Livingston) is gone.

    “Jon was the one who made the plans, who brought everybody together. They all relied on him. Now he’s no longer there, and they’re going to have to figure out what their new role is,” said Stephanie Szostak, who plays Jon’s wife Delilah.

    In June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that suicide rates in the United States “have been rising in nearly every state.”

    In 2016, nearly 45,000 Americans age 10 or older died by suicide.

    As for the “why” behind Jon’s passing, actor Livingston said he’s not focusing on that. “I decided early on to resist the urge to try to find the answer to why this guy did this. Suicide takes people in different ways for myriad reasons,” he said.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • "Shock Value" Anti-Opioid PSAs Debut To Mixed Response

    "Shock Value" Anti-Opioid PSAs Debut To Mixed Response

    The four videos feature actors portraying individuals who go to extremely violent lengths to enable their opioid dependency.

    The Trump administration unveiled a quartet of public service announcements (PSAs) as part of its proposed $4.6 billion fight against the opioid epidemic.

    The four videos, all purported to be based on true stories, feature actors portraying individuals who go to extreme lengths to enable their opioid dependency: one is seen smashing their hand with a hammer, while another drives a car into a dumpster.

    The videos, which began airing on television and and social media on June 7, have drawn not only comparison to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America’s “This is your brain on drugs” campaign of the 1980s, but also a mixed response from drug policy organizations, with some expressing positive views while others labeled the PSAs as “shock value” or “disingenuous and misleading.”

    The ad campaign, which is the first stage in an educational effort called “The Truth About Opioids,” is a joint effort between the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the Truth Initiative and the Ad Council.

    An array of media partners, including Facebook, Google, YouTube and Amazon have committed to donating airtime and ad space for the PSAs, which according to Ad Council CEO Lisa Sherman, is worth roughly $30 million.

    Jim Carroll, deputy director of the ONDCP, was unable to provide an exact figure on how much his agency spent on the campaign, but noted that “very few government dollars” were used, due to the Truth Initiative and Ad Council donating their work and the media partners’ donated airtime.

    Fred Mensch, president of the nonprofit Partnership for Drug-Free Kids—the Partnership for a Drug-Free America’s moniker since 2010—spoke highly of the PSAs, which he described as having “the potential to generate a dialogue between parents and kids on this complex health issue.”

    But Daniel Raymond, deputy director of planning and policy at the Harm Reduction Coalition, called the spots “the 21st century version of the egg-in-the-frying-pan” commercial, referring to the “your brain on drugs” spot, which was created by Partnership for Drug-Free Kids.

    “We don’t need shock value to fight the overdose crisis,” said Raymond. We need empathy, connection and hope for people struggling with opioids. The White House missed an opportunity to combat stigma and stereotypes, portraying people who use opioids as irrational and self-destructive.”

    Stefanie Jones, director of audience development for the Drug Policy Alliance, praised the Truth About Opioids web site for providing useful information and resources, but found that the ads “take really extreme cases,” she said. “It’s all about self-harm to seek opioids, and they also end with the same ‘fact’ about how dependence can start after five days, and that’s just an incredible simplification.”

    The nature of the PSAs seem to suggest what Trump alluded to in March 2018 about a “large-scale rollout of commercials” intended to raise awareness about opioid dependency.

    At the time, Trump said that he had long been in favor of “spending a lot of money on great commercials showing how bad [opioid dependency] is.” He added that his administration would make the spots “very, very bad commercials” in which “you scare [audiences] from ending up like the people commercials,” and cited similar examples in anti-smoking PSAs.

    In May 2018, Axios quoted an unnamed source with an alleged connection to the PSAs, who said that “[Trump] thinks you have to engage and enrage.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Trump Wants New Anti-Opioid PSA Campaign To "Engage And Enrage"

    Trump Wants New Anti-Opioid PSA Campaign To "Engage And Enrage"

    The White House’s new ad campaign will echo the “This Is Your Brain on Drugs” ad campaign first launched in 1987.

    The Trump administration’s anti-opioid ad campaign is coming soon, according to Axios.

    The PSA campaign, the product of a partnership between the White House and the Ad Council, will “shock the conscience,” a source disclosed to Axios. They added, “[President Trump] thinks you have to engage and enrage.”

    The president declared in March that the government will oversee a “large-scale rollout of commercials” to raise awareness about the dangers of opioid abuse.

    “The best way to beat the drug crisis is to keep people from getting hooked in the first place. This has been something I have been strongly in favor of—spending a lot of money on great commercials showing how bad it is,” said Trump at the time.

    “So that kids seeing those commercials during the right shows on television or wherever, the internet, when they see these commercials they [say], ‘I don’t want any part of it.’ That is the least expensive thing we can do. Where you scare them from ending up like the people in the commercials and we will make them very, very bad commercials. We will make them pretty unsavory situations and you have seen it before and it had an impact on smoking and cigarettes.”

    Indeed, research has estimated that the anti-smoking campaign by the Truth Initiative has prevented approximately 301,930 young Americans from smoking in 2015-2016. However, national anti-drug initiatives like “Just Say No” and “This Is Your Brain on Drugs” are generally considered unsuccessful in their attempts at keeping kids off drugs.

    The new ad campaign will echo the “This Is Your Brain on Drugs” ad campaign first launched in 1987. According to Axios’ source, Trump is a fan of the ad’s shock value and stark message.

    Since its debut, the ad has been re-made to feature Rachel Leigh Cook in a 1997 rendition. The actress appeared in a 2016 version of the ad as well, but this time to highlight a totally different message: “This is your brain on the war on drugs.”

    Cook, in partnership with the Drug Policy Alliance, resurrected the iconic egg and frying pan motif to bring awareness to all the ways that the War on Drugs is ruining people’s lives. “It fuels mass incarceration. It targets people of color in greater numbers than their white counterparts,” says Cook in the ad. “It cripples communities. It costs billions. And it doesn’t work. Any questions?”

    The ad was re-made a different way in the same year, with the original anti-drug message but for a new generation. The ad begins with the familiar image of an egg cracking into a sizzling frying pan: “This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?”

    But instead of ending there, as the original PSA did, a child responds:

    “Yeah, I have questions.”

    “Why is heroin so addictive?”

    “Weed’s legal, isn’t it?”

    “Prescription drugs aren’t as bad as street drugs, right?”

    And finally: “Mom, Dad, did you ever try drugs?”

    View the original article at thefix.com