"Stop the Madness" is an anti-drug

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

uniquely endorsed and supported by

United States President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

Ronald Reagan and the

Reagan administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over ...

in 1985. The video includes

Claudia Wells Claudia Grace Wells is an American actress and businesswoman, best known for her role as Jennifer Parker in the 1985 film ''Back to the Future''. Life and career Wells was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but her family moved to San Francisco w ...

New Edition New Edition is an American R&B/Pop group from the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1978 by Bobby Brown. Their name is taken to mean a 'new edition' of the Jackson 5. The group reached its height of popularity in the 19 ...

La Toya Jackson La Toya Yvonne Jackson (born May 29, 1956) is an American singer and television personality. The fifth child and middle daughter of the Jackson family, Jackson first gained recognition on the family's variety television series, ''The Jacksons'', ...

Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed " The Voice", she is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston i ...

David Hasselhoff David Michael Hasselhoff (born July 17, 1952), nicknamed "The Hoff", is an American actor, singer, and television personality. He has set a Guinness World Record as the most watched man on TV. Hasselhoff first gained recognition on ''The You ...

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Kareem (alternatively spelled Karim or Kerim) ( ar, کریم) is a common given name and surname of Arabic origin that means "generous", "noble", "honorable". It is also one of the Names of God in Islam in the Quran. Given name Karim * Karim A ...

Kim Fields Kim Victoria Fields-Morgan ( Fields, formerly Freeman; born May 12, 1969) is an American actress and director. Fields is best known for her roles as Dorothy "Tootie" Ramsey on the NBC sitcom '' The Facts of Life'' (1979–1988), and as Regine H ...

Herb Alpert Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss. Alpert has recorded 28 albums that have landed on the ...

, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Darrell Creswell, Tim Feehan,

Casey Kasem Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio personality, who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably ''American Top 40''. He was the first actor to voice No ...

and Boogaloo Shrimp from the ''

Breakin' ''Breakin (also known as ''Breakdance'' in the United Kingdom and ''Break Street '84'' in other regions) is a 1984 American breakdancing-themed musical film directed by Joel Silberg and written by Charles Parker and Allen DeBevoise based on a ...

'' franchise. Perhaps the main star of the video was Ronald Reagan's wife, Nancy Reagan, whose main cause as First Lady was speaking out against drugs, and forming the "

Just Say No "Just Say No" was an advertising campaign prevalent during the 1980s and early 1990s as a part of the U.S.-led war on drugs, aiming to discourage children from engaging in illegal recreational drug use by offering various ways of saying ''no'' ...

" anti-drug association. Mrs. Reagan appeared twice in ''Stop the Madness''. The video also featured

Stacy Keach Walter Stacy Keach Jr. (born June 2, 1941) is an American actor and narrator. He has played mainly dramatic roles throughout his career, often in law enforcement or as a private detective. His most prominent role was as Mickey Spillane's fiction ...

, an actor arrested and jailed for possession of cocaine in 1984 immediately prior to the release of the video to American high schools. The video features an appearance from

Los Angeles Raiders The Los Angeles Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before relocating back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural 1960 season to the 1981 season and then agai ...

defensive end

Lyle Alzado Lyle Martin Alzado (April 3, 1949 – May 14, 1992) was an American professional All Pro football defensive end of the National Football League (NFL), famous for his intense and intimidating style of play. Alzado played 15 seasons, splitting hi ...

, who would later admit to taking steroids and human growth hormones since 1969 in a July 8, 1991 article he wrote for

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

. Alzado would die from cancer (brain lymphoma) in 1992 at the age of 43. The video was created by

Tim Reid Timothy Lee Reid (born December 19, 1944) is an American actor, comedian and film director best known for his roles in prime time American television programs, such as Venus Flytrap on ''WKRP in Cincinnati'' (1978–82), Marcel "Downtown" Brown ...

, who was then co-starring on CBS' ''

Simon & Simon ''Simon & Simon'' is an American crime drama television series that originally ran from November 24, 1981, to September 16, 1989. The series was broadcast on CBS, and starred Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker as two disparate brothers who oper ...

'' as Lieutenant Marcel Proust "Downtown" Brown when the video was being made. (The stars of ''

'',

Jameson Parker Francis Jameson Parker Jr. (born November 18, 1947) is an American actor, best known for his roles as the first Brad Vernon in soap opera ''One Life to Live'', and as A.J. Simon on the 1980s television series ''Simon & Simon''. Early life an ...

and

Gerald McRaney Gerald Lee McRaney (born August 19, 1947) is an American television and film actor. McRaney is best known as one of the stars of the television shows '' Simon & Simon'', ''Major Dad'', ''Promised Land'' and '' House of Cards''. He currently stars ...

also make an appearance in the video.), and Brian Dyak, founding president and CEO of the Entertainment Industries Council, with Dyak serving as the video's executive producer. The song was written by Michael Stokes. It premiered January 17, 1986 on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

's ''

Friday Night Videos ''Friday Night Videos'' (later becoming ''Friday Night'' and then ''Late Friday'') is an American music video show that was broadcast on NBC from July 29, 1983 to May 24, 2002. It was the network's attempt to capitalize on the emerging popularit ...

'' and was in regular airing for over six months. The song featured in the video was released as a single by

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 w ...

. The dance version of the song was well received in Europe and played in dance clubs internationally, sparking special anti-drug campaigns in Germany, Italy, and other countries.

CBS PSAs

After the success of the movement, the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

television network, working with Brian Dyak and EIC, adopted the ''Stop the Madness'' name for a long-running series of

public service announcements A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...

addressing forms of drug abuse, addictions, alcoholism, and other social issues at concern to the general public. Brian Dyak further initiated the first network television campaign on HIV and AIDS as related to intravenous drug use, also with CBS. The current stars of CBS always spoke directly to the viewer in short but effective spots that launched the first 15-second PSAs. The campaign ran until the mid-1990s, whereupon it was succeeded by specialty campaigns such as ''The Arts Enrich Us All'' and currently, ''CBS Cares''.

External links

*
DEA Official site
Music videos Public service announcements of the United States CBS original programming 1985 singles American advertising slogans Anti-drugs public service announcements 1985 neologisms Songs about drugs MCA Records singles Whitney Houston songs 1985 songs {{music-video-stub