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Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth details social-first ‘Deadly Dose’ campaign to reach 1.2 million youth
Summary
The Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth described a social-first multimedia campaign called Deadly Dose funded in part by the Opioid Abatement Authority. The campaign uses nearly 100 videos and dozens of static assets during a 12-week run, plus downloadable classroom modules for middle and high school.
The Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth on a webinar hosted by the Opioid Abatement Authority on Oct. 5, 2025, described a statewide, social-first multimedia campaign called Deadly Dose intended to raise youth awareness about fentanyl and opioid overdose response.
The campaign, Danny Sages, director of marketing for the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth, said, is “based on the largest formative research project ever conducted with youth in Virginia” and is built to reach young people where they spend time online.
The Deadly Dose effort includes videos, memes and static assets Sages said will run across social platforms in a planned 12-week push; the campaign’s catalog was described as “nearly a 100 different videos and, and other dozens and dozens of other static assets.” Sages also said the foundation has produced classroom-ready lesson modules on the dangers of fentanyl at both middle- and high-school levels and that those materials are available for free download from VFHY’s website.
Why it matters: presenters said fentanyl’s potency and the way it is mixed into pills and powders make it uniquely dangerous for youth, and social media is a primary channel to reach that population. The foundation emphasized both prevention messaging (avoidance and risk reduction) and harm-reduction content (how to recognize and respond to an overdose).
Details: Sages described the campaign as targeting a combined youth and young-adult audience size he summarized as about 1.2 million across the Commonwealth and said campaign evaluation shows high awareness, recall and engagement. He said the foundation can work with localities to provide “local amplification” of the campaign if jurisdictions contribute funding.
Sages also noted the foundation’s downloadable classroom module “Dangers of Fentanyl,” available in middle- and high-school versions and translated into Spanish, includes a training guide and evaluation tools. He said the high-school lesson is roughly an hour long and the middle-school version about 30 minutes, and that “a few hundred different unique organizations” have downloaded the materials so far.
Scope and limits: presenters framed the campaign as an awareness and education tool, not a clinical or treatment intervention. The VFHY materials and social ads are intended to increase knowledge and prompt safer choices and emergency response (for example, calling 911 and administering naloxone when trained), but Sages did not claim the campaign alone prevents overdoses.
Availability: Sages said the OAA-hosted webinar recording and the campaign assets referenced would be posted on the OAA website after the event so attendees could view the videos that did not play during the live presentation.
Ending: The VFHY presentation closed with an invitation for localities that want mass-media outreach to coordinate with the foundation for targeted placement and with a reminder that the downloadable classroom lessons, training guides and Spanish translations are free on vfhy.org.
