A Case of Olympic Proportion
The bribery scandal surrounding the Salt Lake City Olympics, which came to light in January 1999, was certainly cause for concern at Blue Cross/Blue Shield Association (BCBSA),
a long-time sponsor of the games. "Our brands are our number one assets and we didn't want to associate them with something negative," recalls BCBSA staffer Iris Shaffer. But
when a Newsweek cover story cracked the lid on Olympic "doping" a month later, the venerable insurance organization realized that the growing epidemic of performance-
enhancing drug use in sports posed an even greater threat to the integrity of the world's most revered athletic event.
BCBSA, which has 47 member organizations and insures one in four Americans (78 million people), found itself in a position to take the lead as a champion of a higher standard
in sports. The organization hired Shandwick Public Affairs (soon to become Powell Tate in Jan. 2001) to help create a charitable entity known as the Healthy Competition Foundation
and raise the level of public discourse on the subject of doping.
Taking America's Pulse
Research procured through the polling firm American Viewpoint in Alexandria, Va., in early 1999 confirmed that U.S. citizens viewed drug use as a serious threat to the Olympics
- and that they expected corporate sponsors such as BCBSA to take action where IOC efforts had fallen short. "Respondents said we should be part of the solution, not the problem,"
Shaffer says.
But further studies revealed that performance-enhancing drugs were being abused not only by elite athletes, but also at the high school level. Nearly half of the teenagers in a
nationwide survey could not name a single negative health consequence of substances such as androstenedione (a steroid-like supplement), although one in four knew someone who had
used such drugs. More disheartening was the fact that only 29% of parents had spoken to their kids about the subject.
BCBSA quickly broadened its focus. Performance-enhancing drugs weren't simply a problem affecting an elite microcosm of Olympic athletes - they posed a major public health
threat in the U.S. "What we discovered is that it's a problem that goes way beyond the Olympics," says Shaffer, now executive director of the Healthy Competition Foundation. "And
kids aren't just taking [drugs] to improve their athletic performance. They're taking them to look better."
Drug-Free Performance Goals
Working with a budget of $750,000 (earmarked for a 15-month period) the BCBSA/ Shandwick team set the following objectives for what would become an ongoing public affairs
initiative:
- Create a presence in the public health and public policy arenas by providing information on the health effects of performance-enhancing drugs.
- Encourage athletes at all levels of competition to resist the pressure to take drugs through partnerships with and support for organizations/individuals who take a vocal
stance against them. - Urge athletes to take a pledge to compete drug free and create a widely recognized symbol of support for drug-free athletics.
- Make a tangible impact on the reform of the Olympic Games.
Offensive Strategy
Knowing that a nonprofit charity might function as a better magnet for attracting partnerships - and as an independent voice on an important public health issue - BCBSA
established the Healthy Competition Foundation as a separate 501(c)3 organization. The foundation, which was launched in DC with the support of drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey,
now serves as an umbrella organization for the public education campaign and as a permanent watchdog on the issue of doping.
Advocates and partner groups have played a key role in garnering support and exposure for the cause. Current campaign advocates include professional and amateur athletes (the
board includes six Olympic gold medalists), coaches, medical professionals and organizations such as USA Swimming, Eteamz.com, the American Medical Athletic Association and
Olympic Advocates Together Honorably (OATH). Advocates pledge to be drug-free and participate in various Foundation activities.
Triumphs and Setbacks
A series of event tie-ins has yielded mixed results for the Foundation. A pledging ceremony held in tandem with the 1999 U.S. Open swimming championships in San Antonio gained
a windfall in press when swimmer Megan Quann broke an American record while wearing a "Healthy Competition is Drug Free" temporary tattoo (her photo - tattoo and all - appeared in
The New York Times).
But a "Sluggers Challenge" campaign asking 60 baseball players to swear off drugs yielded a sluggish response from players (few pledged) during spring training 2000. "We
discovered a deeper challenge in [professional] sports," says Steve Feldman, group VP of public affairs at Shandwick. "Even if some players had the desire to take our pledge,
they wouldn't because of a code of silence in the locker room. You may not be taking anything, but the guy next to you sure is. And with all due respect to sports writers, they
wouldn't write about the issue because they need access to the locker room. So we had a hard time finding a home for the story on sports pages."
Equipment and Scoring
Among the Healthy Competition campaign's major components: a print brochure, national pledge cards, an advertorial, a broadcast PSA and a Web site (http://www.healthycompetition.org), which provides information about performance-enhancing drugs and encourages visitors to take the
healthy competition pledge online. Local Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans across the country also received grassroots implementation kits to assist them in planning local
programs.
And the results? The initiative certainly has pocketed bragging rights. In October 1999, BCBSA was the only corporate entity invited to testify before the Senate Committee on
Commerce about the growing use of performance-enhancing drugs. That same month, both the IOC and USOC voted to support the creation of an independent agency to oversee drug
testing for athletes participating in the Olympic and Pan American Games.
The Healthy Competition Web site now receives more than 7,000 unique visitors per day. The campaign has logged several thousand pledges and has scored major media coverage in
outlets such as USA Today, The Washington Post, ESPN Radio and ABC News - in total, more than a billion impressions ($68 million worth of coverage to date), according to
Shaffer. The broadcast PSA, first introduced in November 1999, garnered 45 million audience impressions in its first year and has since been picked up by the Office of National
Drug Control Policy for additional distribution.
Most recently, BCBSA was asked to form a task force to assist the FDA in collecting information from the medical community about adverse health effects associated with
doping.
"We've found an issue that works for us on many levels that is differentiating," Shaffer says. "We're the only corporation in America that has taken a stand on this issue. It
speaks to youth, it speaks to parents and it's meaningful."
(Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, 312/297-6000; Shandwick Public Affairs, 202/585-2115)
Blue Cross to Bear
The American Academy of Pediatrics identifies some of the most serious consequences of steroids as high blood pressure, heart disease, liver damage, cancer, stroke and death.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that more than 500,000 children used steroids in one year alone.
"We realized [doping] was not just a problem for elite athletes, it was a problem for kids. And whom do kids look up to? Elite athletes," says Steve Feldman, group VP for
public affairs at Shandwick. "So we set out to fundamentally change the debate on this issue and establish the 'Blues' as an organization that cares about people's health. This
was an issue no one was taking ownership of on a corporate level."
Key Campaign Players
Iris Shaffer, Executive Director, Healthy Competition Foundation
Scott Serota, President & CEO, BCBSA
Dr. Alan Korn, SVP, Chief Medical Officer, BCBSA
Steve Feldman, Group VP for Public Affairs, Shandwick Washington
Josh
Denney, Senior Account Exec., Shandwick Washington