PDFNJ Teams with Lamar Advertising in Campaign Showing Effects of Addiction

3/29/2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 29, 2018

Contact: Matt Birchenough, Media Coordinator, 201-916-1032, media@drugfreenj.org

Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey Teams with Lamar Advertising in Campaign Showing Effects of Addiction

MILLBURN – The Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey (PDFNJ) has launched a new media campaign highlighting the emotional pain associated with addiction and has received help spreading that message from the advertising community.

Lamar Advertising has donated space on four digital billboards throughout the state to display the “Broken Heart” campaign. The campaign feature people in tears alongside the words, “The brain isn’t the only organ impacted by addiction. It also breaks hearts.”

The billboards can be seen on Route 17 in Hasbrouck Heights, on Route 1 near New Brunswick and at two locations on the New Jersey Turnpike in Cranbury.

More than 2,200 people in New Jersey died of drug overdoses in 2016, including 1,900 involving opioids. Nationally, more than 64,000 people succumbed to overdoses, more than 42,000 of which were attributed to opioids.

“The Broken Heart campaign emphasizes that the disease of addiction impacts those suffering from it — as well as their friends and family — in physical, mental and emotional ways,” said PDFNJ Executive Director Angelo Valente. “The Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey is excited to partner with Lamar Advertising to help spread this message to New Jersey residents, so that they can better understand addiction and prevent themselves from experiencing the tragedies too many American and New Jersey families have already faced.”

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Best known for its statewide anti-drug advertising campaign, the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey is a private not-for-profit coalition of professionals from the communications, corporate and government communities whose collective mission is to reduce demand for illicit drugs in New Jersey through media communication.  To date, more than $100 million in broadcast time and print space has been donated to the Partnership’s New Jersey campaign, making it the largest public service advertising campaign in New Jersey’s history. Since its inception, the Partnership has garnered 166 advertising and public relations awards from national, regional and statewide media organizations.