Dr. FLEMING. The first year's appropriation I believe was about $125 million, and last year was $68 million.

Ms. DELAURO. So that $125 million is going to pay or to get the private sector to develop a program?

Dr. FLEMING. It is going already to get them to develop the program. But then it also is going to be used in the coming months to pay for the commercial air time to add the media part of this and also to pay for the community involvement in the cities that this program will be visiting.

Ms. DELAURO. How will that work? I don't understand. Tell me how that is going to work and what will be our connection with it. We've appropriated the money for the program, it's going to go to, and I think we ought to think out of the box on these things. If you've got commercial advertising, they know, all of us like to think in our own efforts that we can design the jingle, design the slogan, but we can't do that. I believe in looking at it.

Just explain to me how this works and what our efforts continue to be with it, and how does it get to the community involvement piece. What's that process about?

Dr. FLEMING. I'd be happy to provide you with a more detailed answer on the record.

MS. DELAURO. Please.

[The information follows:]

Ms. DeLauro: Please give more detailed information regarding the Youth Media Campaign and CDC's involvement with the private sector, how the money is being spent, and how it relates to community involvement. Also wants to know what the in-kind contributions from the private sector will provide for the Youth Media Campaign. Finally, Ms Delauro requests that more detailed information regarding "how CDC deals with the community involvement in this local area, what is that going to include, when the advertising will start, and what is the sense of duration" be provided so that the appropriations committee can start thinking about what their obligations and responsibilities are.

Dr. Fleming: While the national media will begin in June 2002, the local media is planned for late summer 2002 through spring 2003 to help create a buzz about the Campaign just before, during, and after the events.

The aim of the Youth Media Campaign is to increase positive activity B pro-social and physical activities B among tweens (9-13) through media, public and private-sector partnerships, and community events with the support and involvement of parents and adult and tween influencers. Research and evaluation will be ongoing to fine tune and measure the impact of the campaign on knowledge, awareness, attitudes/beliefs and behavior over time.

Private Sector Partners

CDC is working with both corporate and media partners to increase the reach, visibility, credibility and impact of the Campaign. In addition, as we begin developing the community events, we will work with community groups and local corporations to help overcome the barriers to positive activity that youth face. Some corporate partnership efforts include showcasing Campaign messages on product packaging, providing product giveaways for Campaign participation, including Campaign messages in their own events or promotional activities. In addition to corporate partners, CDC is maximizing Campaign dollars through media partnerships. Currently, Saatchi & Saatchi (New York), A Partnership and GarciaLKS are reviewing their respective partnership proposals from key media companies to most effectively achieve Campaign objectives as well as to create a foundation for a truly integrated campaign. The estimated in-kind (or value added) contribution from the media companies alone is $72 million (with value added amounts ranging from 30% to 130%) on top of a $64 million Campaign media buy.

Community Efforts

Involving local communities is an essential component of the Campaign and will help ensure that services are available and accessible to encourage youth (and family) activity. The Campaign staff is sensitive to the need to include local and state organizations in planning all community efforts. This outreach has begun and will continue throughout the Campaign. At present, approximately $8 million (of the

$125 million year one budget) is being used by national, state, and local organizations to support Youth Media Campaign efforts.

Events

In Year One, the Campaign will co-sponsor existing youth event tours (like Nickelodeon and Radio Disney) in up to 15 communities nationwide. The Campaign Big Events will occur at different times starting in late September/early October 2002. The events will offer tweens and their families opportunities to try positive activities and will also showcase local organizations and programs. The events will bring together partner organizations, tween talent, musical entertainment, sports figures and other celebrities to engage youth and families in positive activities. Specifically, the events are designed to

help tweens discover healthy activities

provide a memorable experience

increase the likelihood of behavior adoption

Non-Event Communities

To have maximum reach beyond the 15 event communities, CDC will identify and mobilize multiple partner organizations throughout the U.S. to participate in the Youth Media Campaign. A turnkey (ready-to-use) kit of materials will be developed for the use of any youth-serving organization (including church groups) to implement Campaign activities in their own communities. In addition, materials will be available on a Campaign website.

Dr. FLEMING. Basically, we are approaching this just as any media campaign in the private sector. So the way that folks get you to eat Cheerios in the morning or to buy a refrigerator of a given brand, we are tapping into that expertise and into that methodology to make these behavior messages get to our kids. As a result, there is going to be a combination of innovative media messages in venues that "tweens" watch, Nickelodeon, for example, taking advantage of the private sector. There are many in the private sector who know this is a problem and are anxious to work with us.

Ms. DELAURO. Are they going to contribute dollars to the programs?

Dr. FLEMING. There will be in-kind contributions.

Ms. DELAURO. Is that in terms of buying the time and doing things like that?

Dr. FLEMING. I can get back to you.

Ms. DELAURO. If you can, right. If you can just lay out, because I also am anxious to find out how you deal with the community involvement in this local area, what is that going to include. So if you could just lay all that out and when it will start, what's your sense of its duration, so that we can be thinking about what our obligations and responsibilities are.

Dr. FLEMING. Absolutely. I'd be happy to.

One last point is that the key audience here are kids. So a key part of our development process has been accessing those kids in ways that are friendly to find out from them what are the messages that are going to work. So kids to a large extent are helping us design the effective messages.

MS. DELAURO. That's great. I believe that kids can lead us to adults. I think our kids did that on the environmental issues, I think they'll do that on the smoking issue. If you could just pass on to Dr. Koplan our regards, thank him for his very, very good work. It was really a pleasure to work with him over the years. Thanks so much.

Dr. FLEMING. You're welcome, thank you.

Mr. REGULA. Ms. DeLauro, you'd be interested to know that two of our staff have looked at the media campaign and came back very impressed.

MS. DELAURO. That's great.

Mr. REGULA. So I think you're off on the right track, and of course, my staff has five teenagers or thereabouts. If she thinks it will work for them, it must be good. [Laughter.]

Not that they necessarily need it, but she knows kids, what they respond to.

I yield two quick minutes to Mr. Wicker.

Mr. WICKER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your indulgence.

Just to echo what Mr. Sherwood and Ms. DeLauro have said, I think you are going to find bipartisan support in this Subcommittee for this campaign. And I appreciate your answer to Ms. DeLauro's question about doing it right and taking the time and involving everybody. There is the other model, and I asked the director of CMS about this yesterday. He decided that they needed an education program about Medicare and Medicaid and found some money in his budget and came up with a program in a matter of months which he feels is effective.

So I just want to ask you and point out that this is taking an awful long time. We're ready to go with it and I think we're ready to support you on this. Ms. DeLauro is right, and you are right, it is the children and it's also the adults, particularly in this obesity question. It sounds so touchy-feely for me to be saying the Government ought to be helping people get the weight off. But it is an epidemic health problem, all across the country. And I've seen the charts about where it started and where it's expanded. It causes so many other problems that we've just got to get a handle on it.

So I would urge you to speed up the process if you can. Maybe get back to me on the record about the different approaches that you took and that your agency took as compared to CMS, where they got a program up and running real quick and where we've taken a whole lot of time, maybe it is a little frustrating to some of us on the Subcommittee.

Dr. FLEMING. Thank you. I'd be happy to do that. [The information follows:]