Opioids, Overdose, and Harm Reduction —An Animated Primer on a Difficult Subject

One of the biggest challenges for people engaged in efforts to reduce the preventable harms of drug use is explaining that their work is safe, effective, and serves everyone’s best interest. To facilitate that conversation, Luceo developed a series of animated ‘101’ primer videos that explain harm reduction, what an overdose is (and how to safely reverse it), and why supervised use sites are the gold standard for preventing overdose and stopping the spread of communicable diseases.

Objective
To create a series of videos that explain and normalize the tenets of harm reduction and overdose prevention to an uninitiated audience.

Target Audience
People living in communities impacted by opioid use and the overdose crisis, including law enforcement, public health providers, government officials, and generally active voters.

Insight
Issues surrounding people’s drug use are often fraught with stigma and stereotype.  This serves as a primary obstacle for communicating information that is proven to have a net benefit on public health and lifesaving potential for people who use drugs.  In order to make the subject approachable (and to help normalize the language of harm reduction), we created a series of upbeat animations that break a difficult subject into bite-sized explainer pieces.

Solution
Each animation is framed as a ‘101’ introduction to the topic it covers.  The three topics in the series explain what harm reduction is and how it works, what an overdose is and how to prevent and reverse one, and how supervised use sites can help to dramatically improve public health and reduce the rate of fatal overdoses.  The animations are low-fi, humorous, and engaging —but careful not to make light of subject that claimed more than 65,000 lives in 2016 alone.

Services Rendered
Strategy and Concept
Copywriting and Scripting
Animation and Motion Graphics
Sound Effects
Musical Composition
Voice Talent and Audio Recording
Postproduction
Social Integration and Media Propagation