Action Alert:

Save the Ad Council’s Media Campaign on Underage Drinking!

The Institute of Medicine issued a landmark study in 2003 recommending a national media campaign targeted at parents as the centerpiece of a national effort to combat the health crisis of underage drinking.  Representatives Roybal-Allard, Wolf, DeLauro, Osborne, and Wamp have been successful during the last two years in securing funding for the start-up costs of a pilot media campaign, developed under the auspices of the Ad Council.

However, a sharp reduction in this year’s budget allocation for programs funded under the annual Labor-HHS appropriations bill means that continued funding for the Ad Council’s Media Campaign to Prevent Underage Drinking will be in jeopardy without a show of strong support for the program from as many members of Congress as possible.

Representatives Roybal-Allard, Wolf, DeLauro, Osborne, and Wamp are circulating a “Dear Colleague” letter to House members, asking them to join in signing in a letter to the Chairman of the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, urging him to support a third year of funding ($850,000) for the Ad Council Media Campaign on underage drinking prevention.

Please contact your Member of Congress via phone or fax by Friday, May 27th.  The Capitol Switchboard (202-225-3121) will connect you to your Representative's office.  Ask to speak to the staff member who handles appropriations, or ask for their fax number and send off a quick note today!  Your message is simple: “Please sign the Roybal-Allard/Wolf letter to Chairman Regula to support continued funding for the Ad Council's Media Campaign to Prevent Underage Drinking.”

• The Institute of Medicine issued a landmark study in 2003 recommending a national media campaign targeted at parents as the centerpiece of a national effort to combat the health crisis of underage drinking.
   

• Underage drinking prevention champions on Capitol Hill have been successful in including funds in the Labor-HHS-Education bill for the start-up costs of a media campaign – to conduct research on effective messaging using focus groups, and devise a creative strategy.
   

• Continued funding will allow the Ad Council to distribute media kits to 28,000 media outlets nationwide, monitor the placement of the ads, and conduct on-going longitudinal studies for evaluation of the campaign's success.
   

• This modest investment in helping parents protect their children from the widespread harms of underage drinking is expected to leverage up to $30 million per year in donated media per year -- a return of 70:1.
   

If your Representative's staff member isn't sure who to contact to sign on to the letter, tell them they may call Courtney Schlieter (Rep. Wolf) at ext. 55136 or Don DeArmon (Rep. Roybal-Allard) at ext. 51766.

Updated May 17, 2005

Related Links:

Letter to Chairman Regula

"Reducing Underage Drinking" Executive Summary [PDF]

Email this link

  Download the free Acrobat Reader here to view PDF files.

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