Issues
More than 400,000 Americans with epilepsy are under age 18. But research shows that the majority of today's youth knows little or nothing about the disorder—and those who do cling to outmoded myths and misinformation. As a result, tweens and teens with epilepsy are often teased, shunned or otherwise treated differently by their peers, affecting self-esteem and school performance. The Epilepsy Foundation looked to Ogilvy PR to develop a campaign to educate teens and overcome misinformation.

Challenge
The campaign would "compete" in a crowded health communications marketplace, where the target audience was already exposed to multiple messages cautioning them against drug use, drinking and smoking. Breaking through would be difficult, especially as epilepsy is correctly not viewed as a life threatening condition.

Insight
In focus groups with tweens and teens, young people often asserted that adults did not treat them with the respect they deserve. This led directly to the development of the campaign's tagline Entitled to Respect, which positioned tweens and teens with epilepsy as normal kids who successfully deal with a medical condition every day.

Strategy
Members of the target group are voracious consumers of electronic media and are also the first generation to grow up with computers as a common household object. By emphasizing radio and the Web, plus age appropriate print materials, the Entitled to Respect message would precisely target teens and tweens.

Campaign
•	Ogilvy PR tapped its connections to the entertainment industry to find high profile spokespeople to reach the target audience ·   In 2001, NSYNC recorded radio PSAs for Entitled to Respect ·  In 2002, Ashton Kutcher, breakout star of That 70s Show came aboard ·  In 2003, for a campaign targeting African American tweens and teens, Grammy-award winning R&B artist Monica came on as spokesperson
•	A special Entitled to Respect area was created on the Epilepsy Foundation’s web site. Here, teens were encouraged to share their experiences and break the silence around the seizure disorder.
•	Tool kits were created for local Epilepsy Foundations to help with local media outreach and other community-based programming
•	A range of supporting materials was created, including brochures, mini-magazines and posters
Results
•	Entitled to Respect, which debuted in November 2001 (Epilepsy Month), was the most successful awareness campaign in 30 years, according to the Epilepsy Foundation
•	55 million media impressions were recorded
•	The NSYNC radio PSA aired more than 31,000 times, reaching a combined audience of 40 million
•	Web site traffic doubled and there were nearly 60,000 visits to the Entitled to Respect area
•	More than 140 million impressions were generated in 2002 through a radio PSA and a news release
•	In 2003, the campaign generated nearly 120.5 million teen and adult impressions, with 75% of them in the African-American target audience