NEW YORK, March 20, 2006 -- Major League Baseball and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America today unveiled the second phase of an anti-steroid initiative designed to educate America’s youth and influential adults in their lives about the dangers of steroids and performance-enhancing substances. The next stage of the public outreach campaign includes a new component, a poster campaign utilizing high school coaches, which is designed to expand the initiative’s impact on the issue of youth steroid use.

The initiative message will be communicated across the country through a multi-media campaign with TV, radio and print ads. The first ad, “Shrinking,” will debut during the broadcast of the final game of the World Baseball Classic tonight at 9:00 p.m. ET (6:00 p.m. PT) on ESPN.

“Shrinking” targets young male audiences and takes a more provocative approach to communicating the dangers of steroids. As a voice-over describes how the drug can affect the body, a set of sports equipment, including a baseball, basketball, soccer ball, and football, quickly and noticeably decrease in size. A second ad, “Fade,” will debut during the 2006 season and will target both youth and their parents.

“Major League Baseball is a national institution and we take our responsibilities seriously when it comes to how the game affects the lives of America’s youth,” said Allan H. (“Bud”) Selig, Commissioner of Baseball. “Through our work with the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, we know how important it is to reach athletes at a young age with important information about the dangers of steroids and to reinforce those messages with influencers including their parents and coaches.”

In 2005, Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association reinforced the game’s zero tolerance policy against the use of steroids by increasing the use of frequent random testing, toughening punishments to 50 games for a first offense, 100 games for a second, and a lifetime ban for a third, and instituting testing for amphetamines.
Research conducted by Major League Baseball and the Partnership identified high school coaches as a top influencer in the lives of young athletes. Based on the findings from these studies, MLB and the Partnership developed a prototype outreach campaign that will provide high school coaches with a variety of materials, including posters, signage that can be used in school, and ads that can run in championship game programs. The campaign will be pilot tested in New Jersey in collaboration with the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey.

“The Partnership is extremely proud of our long and productive relationship with Major League Baseball,” said Steve Pasierb, President & CEO of the Partnership for A Drug-Free America. “Over the past five years we have reached tens of millions of families with essential messages about how to raise healthy, drug-free children. We are also indebted to BBDO New York for their long term partnership with us on this project. Our collective efforts are making a significant impact against steroid abuse among the youth of this country.”

Major League Baseball and the Partnership will track the effectiveness of the initiative using several tools, including the Partnership Attitude Tracking Study, an annual study tracking attitudes teenagers have about illegal drugs, and other national tracking studies including the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future, a standard of measurement for attitudes and drug use among young people in the U.S. Additionally, Major League Baseball and the Partnership will survey high school athletic coaches on an on-going basis to identify changes in the landscape of the use of these drugs.
Major League Baseball and the Partnership have been working together on various anti-drug projects for the past five years. In 2004, the two organizations collaborated on a comprehensive research study on the perceptions and attitudes of young people, parents and high school athletic coaches relative to the use of steroids and performance enhancing substances. This research provided the strategic and creative basis for the first two phases of the initiative.

The campaign will be distributed through a variety of both English and Spanish-language media. Following today’s television launch, the ads will be broadcast on Major League Baseball’s television inventory, both locally and nationally. The advertising will be sent to the 30 Major League Clubs for them to run on available inventory during local game broadcasts as well as in-stadium video boards. Both spots will also run via local, national, and satellite radio distribution, and will also appear in various parent-targeted print publications.

Both commercials were created by award-winning advertising agency BBDO Worldwide Inc. and production companies Quiet Man Inc and Trio Films. The creative and production team also collaborated on the ad used in the first phase of the initiative, “Statue.”

The “Shrinking” spot will be available on the Partnership for a Drug-Free America’s Web site, drugfree.org and on MLBPressbox.com. The Partnership also will distribute the “Shrinking” and “Fade” ad messages through their State/City Alliance Program. This program supports the Partnership’s mission at the local level.

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Contact: Richard Levin or Susan Goodenow, Major League Baseball, (212) 931-7878
Jack Irving, Partnership For A Drug-Free America, (212) 973-3500