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# DC Truth Initiative’s National Opioid Addiction Prevention Ads Meant to ‘Shock the Conscious’
- URL: https://capitolcommunicator.com/dc-truth-initiatives-national-public-service-opioid-ads-meant-to-shock-the-conscious/
- Published: 2018-06-08T13:43:07.000Z
- Updated: 2021-08-12T21:15:08.000Z
- Author: Guest Columnist
- Tags: Advertising, B to C, Insights, #Import 2026-10-08 18:49

**A construction worker deliberately slams a door on his arm.** Another young man grabs a hammer, takes three breaths and brings it down on his hand. A young woman aims her car at wall of trash bins, unbuckles her seat belt and hits the gas.

According to [**NBC News**](https://www.nbcnews.com/?ref=capitolcommunicator.com)**,** that is the gist of powerful TV commercials produced by the[ **Truth Initiative** ](https://truthinitiative.org/news/expanding-our-mission-opioid-education-and-prevention-campaign?ref=capitolcommunicator.com)that were unveiled on **“Today”** and aim to do to the deadly opioid epidemic what the group’s earlier ads did to the scourge of tobacco — scare people away from trying them in the first place.

“They are powerful. They are honest. They are a little raw,” **Robin Koval,** Truth Initiative’s CEO and President, told NBC’s **Cynthia McFadden.** The Truth Initiative, a non-profit public health organization located in Washington, DC, also developed the **truth**® campaign, a national tobacco prevention initiative.

Koval told NBC News that the ads are true descriptions of the lengths people addicted to opioids have gone to in order to get new painkiller prescriptions.

“They’re not just random stories of young people, peer to peer, telling stories to other young people about what can happen with casual recreational use, or taking a prescription and not really understanding that dependency can happen in as little as five days,” Koval said.

“The first thing we have to do in an education program is get people’s attention,” she said. “The average attention span now is eight seconds. So, you know, we have to get young people to pay attention to these.”

[**Axios,**](https://www.axios.com/trump-anti-opioid-ads-epidemic-brain-on-drugs-df0a2c32-7c04-473e-a46c-6550dc3241c3.html?ref=capitolcommunicator.com) also reporting on the new anti-drug campaign, said the Trump administration described the ads as having a “shock the conscience” rawness. Axios said that **President Trump**, who doesn’t appear in the ads, likes the starkness of the classic **“Your Brain on Drugs”** messages and wanted a similar toughness. “He thinks you have to engage and enrage,” a source told them.

More [**here.**](https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/americas-heroin-epidemic/new-prescription-opioid-crisis-hard-hitting-ads-nail-desperation-n881046?ref=capitolcommunicator.com)