PROBLEM: 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.
IDEA: To humanize the crisis, NSC turned data into faces—engraving the faces of the 22,000 moms, dads, sons, and daughters that die each year from prescription opioid overdoses onto 22,000 pills. These pills formed a powerful installation, a memorial that told stories on an individual level, painted a picture of the lives lost, and put a face to the problem.
OUTCOME: Prescribed to Death sparked a national conversation about the prescription opioid problem in the US. The campaign garnered 2,455,606,809+ earned impressions to date, 12,990,351+ video views and a 2,017% increase in shared Facebook impressions. Through earned PR alone, 15 cities hardest hit by the crisis heard about the memorial and asked to host it. The White House was so moved that they brought it to Washington DC, hosting it on the National Mall.