The Truth About Opioids Campaign Wins Emmy Award

Campaign underscores the importance of youth opioid misuse prevention and education

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May 04, 2019, 00:48 ET

WASHINGTON, May 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The youth and young adult opioid misuse prevention and education campaign, The Truth About Opioids, won an Emmy in the Outstanding Special Class – Short Format Daytime Program category at the 46^th Annual Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. The winning 6-minute video "Treatment Box: Rebekkah's Story" brings viewers face to face with the truth about opioids by capturing 26-year-old Rebekkah's experience with opioid addiction and her journey to recovery. The campaign demonstrates that opioid addiction can happen to anyone after just five days, and helps young people to understand the dangers associated with opioid misuse.

The Truth About Opioids campaign, focusing on reducing the misuse of opioids among youth and young adults, is a collaboration between Truth Initiative, the national public health organization behind the truth campaign; the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the Ad Council. The "Treatment Box: Rebekkah's Story" video and multiscreen installation in New York City was created and produced by Truth Initiative agency and production partners 72andSunny Los Angeles and m ss ng p eces.

"We are very grateful to Rebekkah for sharing her powerful story and pulling back the curtain on opioid addiction so that young people can see that it can happen to anyone. Youth and young adult prevention is a critical component to combatting America's opioid crisis and importantly the stigma associated with the disease of addiction," said Robin Koval, CEO and President of Truth Initiative. "The Truth About Opioids campaign aims to de-stigmatize opioid dependence by sharing true stories of young people to young people and key facts to help prevent opioid misuse among youth and young adults."

The Truth About Opioids debuted in June 2018 with first-person stories of young Americans with an opioid use disorder. The multi-channel opioid prevention effort was designed to help young people understand the facts about opioids, the risk of addiction and the crucial role they can play in solving the crisis within their communities.

"We are thrilled to be recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences with this award and want to thank our extraordinary partners who have helped make the campaign such a success," said Lisa Sherman, president and CEO of the Ad Council. "Our hope is that this Emmy win for 'Treatment Box: Rebekkah's Story' will drive even more public awareness of the opioid crisis and the dangers of addiction."

The Truth About Opioids is an expansion of the nationally recognized, evidence-based truth tobacco prevention counter-marketing campaign that has a proven track record in helping to bring the youth cigarette use rate down from 23 percent in 2000 to an historic low of 4.6 percent in 2018.

For more information, visit https://opioids.thetruth.com.

About Truth Initiative
Truth Initiative, through its truth® campaign, offers an unmatched expertise and record of success in public education programs targeted to youth and young adults. Since it began in 2000, the truth campaign has prevented over one million youth and young adults from smoking. In its nearly 20 years of work in this field, Truth Initiative has engaged youth and young adults in conversations about the risks of addiction and enlisted them to not only modify their own behavior but to influence the cultural norms of peers within their social communities. truth interacts with millions of youth through social media platforms on a daily basis and is uniquely positioned to speak to young people about substance abuse and addiction issues.

About the Ad Council
The Ad Council is a private, non-profit organization with a rich history of marshaling volunteer talent from the advertising and media industries to deliver critical messages to the American public. To learn more about the Ad Council and its campaigns, visit www.adcouncil.org, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or view our work on YouTube.

SOURCE Truth Initiative