[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
[August 2, 1999]
[Pages 1361-1363]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1361]]

Remarks on the Youth Antidrug Media Campaign
August 2, 1999

    The President. Thank you so much. Andy, 
you might consider politics when you get out of skateboarding. 
[Laughter] You have to fall down a lot. It's about as dangerous, and we 
could use you. I thought he did a terrific job. Let's give him another 
hand. [Applause]
    General McCaffrey, thank you so much, 
and all your team, for the wonderful job you do. I met General McCaffrey 
when he was still in uniform, and I decided he could do just about 
anything he put his mind to, and I think he's just about proved it. I 
think he and the whole team, all of them who are here, have done a 
wonderful job. I'm grateful to them.
    Jim Burke, thank you so much--you and the 
Partnership for a Drug-Free America, for everything you have done, and 
for the inspiration and the urging you have given to me these last 6\1/
2\ years. Thank you, Peggy Conlon, and the Ad 
Council, for all you have done to make this media campaign a success, 
and I want to thank Senator Specter and 
Congressman Levin and Congressman 
Cummings for being here, because the 
Congress has been a critical part of this.
    Let me say, before I get into my brief remarks and we watch the ads, 
which is why we all came here--because this is my first opportunity to 
meet with the media today, I want to say a word about this heat wave 
that is going on in our country that now has claimed at least 190 lives 
and caused great hardship, especially for a lot of our farmers and 
ranchers.

Emergency Assistance for Farmers

    Our Secretary of Agriculture, Dan Glickman, 
today issued an emergency declaration for all of West Virginia and for 
counties in surrounding States which will give family farm operators 
eligibility for low-interest emergency loans. We're also working with 
local governments and private agencies to help farmers get water and hay 
to keep their livestock alive. It's literally a problem for them to keep 
their livelihoods alive. I'm also committed to working with this 
Congress to provide the resources to help our farmers and ranchers to 
deal with the crisis today and by fixing the farm bill for the future.
    To others, especially our elderly who are very vulnerable in this 
heat, we have provided $100 million to pay for air-conditioning and 
fans, and I expect we will be doing more things in the days ahead.

Youth Antidrug Media Campaign

    Now, let me talk a little bit about this whole antidrug effort, and 
let me begin with something that has not yet been mentioned. We owe a 
profound debt to the men and women who are engaged in this struggle for 
our children's lives and future. All those who are here today or their 
groups have been mentioned. I also want to say a special word of 
appreciation to the young people who are here who remind us what this 
campaign is all about. And there are a lot of young people here today, 
and I want to thank all of them for being here.
    I'd also like to say that we should not let this moment go by 
without acknowledging the enormous courage of a lot of our men and women 
in various Federal services and the armed services who are working to 
prevent drugs from coming here in the first place.
    Last week we mourned the loss of five U.S. Army personnel who died 
with their Colombian colleagues when their antidrug reconnaissance plane 
crashed in the Andes. They perished far from home, but in a very real 
sense they gave their lives to protect our families, our neighborhoods, 
our Nation, indeed, our national security. We honor their commitment. We 
remember their sacrifice. And I'm sure all of us will join in a pledge 
to continue their work.
    I also want to say that as much work as still remains to be done, 
I'd like to take a moment just to celebrate the work that all of you 
have done. When we were out there running for office in 1992, the Vice 
President had this hilarious rap about 
everything that should be up was down, and everything that should be 
down was up, and everything was all mixed up. And it is true. And one of 
the sad things that was up was drug use.
    All of you, I suppose, have heard me say this, but I have had 
personal experience with the devastation drugs can bring to families. I 
know they can bring death, and, as I saw in my own family with my 
brother, they can also destroy lives. I also saw that they are not fatal 
if you survive them, that you can come back.

[[Page 1362]]

For all of you who deal with drug treatment and who help young people 
overcome their problems, I am personally, profoundly grateful.
    Since I've been here, I've done what I could to work with people who 
were committed to turning our children away from drugs and saving more 
families from going through what my family did. And again I say, under 
the remarkable leadership of General McCaffrey and with the help of all the community groups and all the 
others here represented, we have seen the unrelenting increase in drug 
use begin to turn around. In the last 2 years, drug use has begun to 
decline among people of all ages for all types of drugs.
    We've tried to do more with enforcement and prevention, more police 
on the street, doing more to keep drugs from coming into the United 
States, more drug testing of prisoners and parolees to break the link 
between drugs and crime. And of course, in December of 1997, we'd 
launched this sweeping effort to change the attitudes of an entire 
generation of young people with the unprecedented youth antidrug media 
campaign.
    I'd like to just say a word here. Normally, the press in Washington 
focuses on what we are fighting about and what the parties disagree 
about. But we had enormous bipartisan support in Congress for this 
endeavor, and for that I am profoundly grateful.
    It seemed a little awkward at first when General 
McCaffrey and I went to the Congress to 
ask for this money, but I kept pointing out--I said, ``Look, guys, look 
how much money we raise every year to advertise. Every election, we 
advertise because we think that we have to get our message out. When I'm 
doing something up here people disagree with, groups get together and 
raise money, and they advertise, and they say the President is wrong.'' 
And it's part of the American system. And here we've got a problem that 
is just as important, if not more important than anything else in our 
society, where we know we have a large number of our young people who 
may not be getting the right message, and it seemed to me totally 
illogical that we would not be using one of the most important weapons 
for influencing attitudes in a modern information age.
    The media campaign appears to be working even better than we had 
thought across all grade levels, income levels, races, and genders. 
Today I will release the results of a detailed evaluation of the second 
phase of this campaign in which we began rolling out the ads nationwide. 
This report shows that if you're a teenager or a parent, it is nearly 
impossible to avoid seeing or hearing our antidrug messages on 
television or radio several times a week. It shows the percentage of 
young people who said the ads made them stay away from drugs increased 
significantly during the course of the study.
    We expected the ads would greatly increase awareness. What we didn't 
expect was that the ads would already have a measurable effect on 
attitudes. This is a very good sign. What it proves is, I suppose, what 
we should have known all along, that if advertising works in commerce 
and advertising works in politics, advertising ought to work on this 
issue as well.
    I have to say a special word of appreciation to the Ad Council and 
all those who put the ads together, because they were, one, effective, 
and two, honest. And in order to have any enduring impact, I can tell 
you, having participated for 25 years, now, in doing political 
advertising, they have to be both effective and honest in order to last. 
And to all those who helped us put these ads together, I am very, very 
grateful.
    Today we launch the next phase of the campaign. I think the most 
appropriate thing to do is just to show you a couple of our newest ads, 
and you will see that the gentleman who introduced me is in truth a professional athlete. [Laughter] So let's 
turn out the lights and watch the ad. We ought to turn the lights out. 
Otherwise, we won't be able to see them. [Laughter]

[At this point, videotapes of the ads were shown.]

    The President. I told Andy that I had 
already seen him on television; even I, when I'm channel-surfing, 
sometimes catch the skateboarders. [Laughter] Every time I see him do 
that I think, you know, a couple of years ago I fell 6 inches and was 
hobbled for 6 months. [Laughter] Thank you.
    Let me say, as important as this advertising is, it isn't enough. 
And I want to say a special word of appreciation for the partnerships at 
the national and community level, because everywhere young people go 
during every part of the day, they will see more than the television. 
They will see the message that drugs are wrong; they can kill; they are 
illegal.

[[Page 1363]]

    This will outdo the ``Star Wars'' promotion for name and brand. You 
will see not just television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the 
Internet; you will see this message on bus stops and subway cars, movie 
screens, and video games. It will be in the classroom through cable 
programming in schools and substance abuse materials we'll provide the 
teachers.
    It will be part of after-school activities, through organizations 
like the YMCA. The message will be part of an increasing number of 
sporting events, like basketball tournaments sponsored by the New York 
Knicks. And last month during the X Games, not only did we place 
antidrug messages everywhere the TV viewer could constantly see them, we 
also handed out stickers with the slogan, ``Get vertical, not high.'' 
They became one of the hottest items for the hundreds of thousands of 
spectators who came to the X Games.
    And as General McCaffrey said, we will get the word out in 11 
languages other than English, including Spanish, Cantonese, Vietnamese, 
and Navajo and Lakota, a language I just tried out when I was at the 
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
    I think that this phase will be even more effective than the last 
phase of the campaign. And I think you will see real impacts on the 
behavior of our young people and that teen drug use will continue to 
decline.
    But I would also say that no matter how effective all of you are, we 
still have to have more help as close to home as possible, with the 
parents sitting down and talking to their children, not waiting until 
their children are using drugs to talk about them, and with all the 
teachers, the coaches, the mentors, the community police, the health 
care workers and, of course, the religious leaders, making up what the 
First Lady always calls the village, that have to help raise our 
children.
    And finally, I'd like to say that young people should not ever 
minimize the impact they can have not only on their own lives but on 
their friends and their siblings. In every school in America there's a 
young person who is a good kid but just a little lost or confused, who 
can be reached by a friend, very often who can be reached by a friend 
more than the President or any other figure in apparent authority.
    So I say to all of you, first, thanks, and second, let's keep going. 
Together, we can give every single child in this country a chance to 
grow up in a world where the only limits are the outlines of their hopes 
and dreams. Not every child can be a skateboard champion like Andy, but 
every child can fly.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:57 a.m. in Presidential Hall (formerly 
Room 450) in the Old Executive Office Building. In his remarks, he 
referred to Andy Macdonald, professional skateboarder, who introduced 
the President; James E. Burke, chairman, Partnership for a Drug-Free 
America; and Peggy Conlon, president, Ad Council.