OREGON HEALTH AUTHORITY
“Just Say No” didn’t work in the 80s and we knew it wouldn’t work with today’s young Oregonians. When we developed Stay True to You, OHA’s youth marijuana prevention campaign, we didn’t rely on easily disproved scare tactics. We brought to life the true stories of young adults and their experiences using marijuana to help kids understand the possible negative effects of marijuana use.
– Anonymous Youth, Portland, Oregon
The video testimonials were supplemented with original videos that touched upon different messages we found were effective in our formative research. We used hard data combined with the “social norming” tactic to connect with youth and let them know marijuana use isn’t as common as they may think, or as common as their friends may lead them to believe—4 out of 5 high school juniors don’t smoke weed.
The campaign was visible everywhere our target audience of youth and young adults were. That included billboards near schools and in well-trafficked areas, posters in malls, and videos played before movies.
Strict “don’t do drugs” posts were never going to thrive on social networks. We created an assortment of content that mixed funny and sharable posts with messages around the consequences of underage cannabis use. As a result, we were able to benefit from organic sharing that expanded the reach of our brand.
Stay True to You is a youth-focused effort and young people are unlikely to read local news. But parents and legislators are important secondary audiences. To inform parents about the effort and to show the Legislature that their direction was being followed, we set up a press conference to debut the campaign. This conference was covered throughout the state. Campaign materials were broadcast on all four Portland TV news networks and were featured on the front page of the Oregonian.
Multnomah County Library