Daisha Benjamin Dr. Wertz Com 3355 10 September 2013 D.A.R.

E to Make a Change Problem Statement The federal government decided not to block marijuana-legalization laws in Colorado and Washington. This decision may make it easier for children and adolescents to access marijuana. Therefore, the number of drug users among children and adolescents will increase. Public(s) The target audience for this campaign is children from kindergarten through 12th grade, more specifically, children from age 5 until age 18. Typically, children within this age range are more susceptible to peer pressure. D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) targets this audience in order to give children the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, violence, etc. The second target audience is parents who have children from kindergarten through 12th grade. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average age of motherhood is 25 years old. Usually children do not start kindergarten until age 5. Therefore, our target is parents between the ages 30-45(CDC, 2005). Objective(s) The objective is to raise awareness about the effects of marijuana. So, D.A.R.E would like to raise awareness by 10 percent by September 2014. The second objective is to reduce marijuana use by 20 percent by December 2014.

Strategies & Tactics The strategies include sending out press releases, using social media websites, such as Facebook, placing links to the D.A.R.E website, and creating a TV advertisement. The first tactic includes sending press releases to Seattle Times, Seattle PI, Denver Post, Gazette (Colo.), and PR Newswire. The second tactic is posting information about the law on Facebook. Also, creating Facebook posts about the effects of marijuana will be released periodically. The third tactic is creating a blog about the law and the effects of marijuana to post on the D.A.R.E and creating a banner for the D.A.R.E homepage. The final tactic is creating advertisements for TV. One of the advertisements will be played on Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, The Cartoon Network, and PBS Kids. The other advertisement will be played on MTV, VH1, and BET. Research Because D.A.R.E has many different publics, we must conduct research to find out the best way to reach each public. We will research which demographics use social media the most. Also, we will research which age groups read the newspapers. Lastly, we will research which demographics watch certain TV channels. Evaluation In order to evaluate the PR plan, we will count the number of shares and likes we received on Facebook, and we will count the number of clicks the banner received on the D.A.R.E homepage. Also, we will count the number of times the advertisements were played. Lastly, we will count the number of newspapers that used the press releases.

Works Cited Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2005). Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5419a5.htm