Prescription opioids contribute to the deaths of more than 22,000 Americans each year. Yet, when we started this project in early 2017, prescription opioids were not getting any media attention. National Safety Council recognized how many Americans were at risk of addiction and overdose and launched a campaign to stem the crisis.

Research revealed that most Americans don’t believe they are at risk for an overdose, despite evidence to the contrary. In order to expose people to their own vulnerability to addiction, NSC had to make the epidemic more personal. To accomplish this, NSC eschewed a traditional ad campaign in favour of an immersive brand experience, which they built by combining innovative technology with demographic data about opioid overdose victims, ultimately developing a new media channel that brought the epidemic closer to home. This memorial to the victims of the prescription opioid crisis was the center of a program, Prescribed to Death, around which NSC built an integrated ecosystem including a digital memorial, films, out of home social, and digital that brought the personal nature of the experience to a broad national audience.

The campaign, “Prescribed to Death,” solidified NSC’s place as a leader fighting causes of preventable deaths.

- The program earned the attention of the White House, who invited NSC to advise on the national Opioid Task Force and caused a +45% jump in perceptions of NSC as a “leader in fighting preventable deaths and overdoses amongst exposed consumers".

- It jumpstarted a national conversation about the overlooked role of prescription opioids in our country’s opioid epidemic, earning 2.5 billion impressions.

- This national attention helped combat dangerous misperceptions that the prescription opioid crisis was not relevant, driving a +43% increase in perceptions of opioids as a serious safety threat.

- Most importantly, innovation turned a seemingly simple sticker into a safety tool– a Warn Me Label–helping over one million Americans have potentially life-saving conversations with their doctors.