What do July 4th and the Opioid Crisis Have in Common?
Tie-ins to patriotic holidays are a time-tested avenue for promoting a product or business.
How many times have we seen Presidents’ Day promotions for Lincoln lounge suites or Washington white sales? (Far too often, I think you’ll agree.)
Getting Serious
But from a public affairs standpoint, despite the all-too-common campy come-ons, there is still value in the patriotic connection strategy – if it is done in a way that respects and pays homage to the historical precedent.
Anyone who has read a newspaper or watched the TV news is aware that opioid abuse has reached epic proportions across the United States. Our client, Relievus, a physician practice specializing in pain management, wanted to enhance its brand reputation in a way that reflected a commitment to the communities it serves.
SPRYTE recommended a letter to the editor campaign encompassing community newspapers throughout Relievus’ service region – including 15 locations across South Jersey, as well as Philadelphia’s Mainline, Northeast Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs. To emphasize the local connection and maximize impact, the doctors’ offices in each respective community were correlated to individual local papers.
The theme was Independence Day and was timed to land right as the Fourth of July holiday took place. The analogy of patients struggling to overcome opioid addiction as a modern day fight against oppression and the need to band together for a common good proved to be a popular message, as the letter to the editor was picked up by newspapers throughout Relievus’ New Jersey and Pennsylvania footprint:
Toward a New Independence Day
Dear Editor,
On July 4th, millions of Americans will come together to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, an historic testimonial against oppression that still inspires people around the world.
Today, millions of Americans are confronting another kind of oppression – opioid addiction. At Relievus, we see the effects of this horrible epidemic every day. It has destroyed families, ruined lives and even led to an historic decrease in lifespan among sectors of the U.S. population.
According to recent reports, in 2016, 11.5 million people misused prescription opioids, while over 42,000 died from an opioid overdose. Roughly 40% of those deaths involved a prescription opioid. But the impact isn’t limited to opioid abusers. Another report puts the economic impact of each opioid overdose death at approximately $800,000.
It’s important to understand that people who abuse opioids are not weak or inferior. They simply are people trying to deal with their pain. Eventually this pain becomes difficult to manage until it begins affecting their quality of life.
Weaning patients off opioids is an important step. But managing pain takes an intense, multi-faceted approach. Most need social support, behavioral therapy and/or individual counseling. They cannot do it alone. It will take a united and coordinated front.
On this Fourth of July, let us reignite the spirit of American courage and community. Let us work to create a new dawn of independence from the oppression caused by the abuse of opioids and other drugs.
Young J. Lee, MD
Relievus
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Moral of the Story
Even in our current, often-divisive times, a message of community and concern for the greater good can still resonate widely. Perhaps today, more than ever, it’s important to look back to those positive themes that helped establish and develop our nation and use them as a guide as we create our future. As hallowed forefather Benjamin Franklin observed just before signing the Declaration of Independence: “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."
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