Anti-Drug Campaign Includes Online Component

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is planning an online component for its four-year, $1 billion campaign across all media to get its anti-drug message across.

Only a small fraction of the budget is expected to go toward the Internet during the course of the program, according to an Adweek report. However, the agency plans to spend $3 million in online advertising through the 12-month period ending in July. Specifics of the online campaign have yet to be determined.

To flesh out its online strategy, the agency awarded a $9.4 million contract to the Washington office of public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard. The firm, which has been hired to manage both the Internet plan and other duties, is expected to develop an online business plan, along with an integrated media plan, within the next month, John Hale, ONDCP deputy campaign director, told Adweek.

So far, ONDCP has been rolling out online banner creative, running a total of 21 banners on approximately 125 sites, including Yahoo, Netscape’s NetCenter and Excite, with banner buys linked to keyword searches such as “heroin” and methamphetamine”; site networks such as Warner Bros. and CNN; community sites including Geocities, Tripod and theglobe.com; and youth-targeted sites discover.com and Yahoo’s Yahooligans.

Some of the ad banners are linked to a Web site–projectknow.com–where visitors can get more information about how to prevent drug use. Others click through to the parenting section of the Web site of the Partnership for a Drug Free America