The next time Wheel of Fortune star Pat Sajak appears on prime-time television, it might be Harvard's fault.

Thanks to the efforts of the Harvard Alcohol Project, networks and Hollywood studios have begun a massive media campaign--using stars like Sajak--to "change American social norms relating to drinking and driving," says Director of the Project Jay A. Winsten.

The statistics are frightening. According to the Department of Transportation, two of every five Americans will be in an alcohol-related car accident. Almost 24,000 people die each year in alcohol-related car crashes. More than 500,000 people are injured in such accidents each year. Drunk driving accidents are the leading cause of death among 15 to 19 year olds.

The Project, an enterprise of the Center for Health Communication at Harvard's School of Public Health (SPH), is drawing on the power of the American mass media to "add momentum to changes that are already beginning to occur in reducing drunk driving and increasing use of the designated driver," says Winsten.

The Project's efforts have resulted in the three big TV networks broadcasting anti-drunk driving announcements up to 20 times per week this holiday season. The Project's public service ads will occupy air time that Winsten estimates is worth $100,000,000. In addition, Winsten persuaded 13 Hollywood television studios to include lines of dialogue encouraging use of the designated driver in the scripts of many prime-time shows.

"It's a tremendous idea. TV is so influential. This is a tremendous opportunity to educate Americans to the idea that drinking and driving is socially unacceptable," says Vicki Walling Smith of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the largest anti-drunk driving organization on the country.

Unlike the "Just Say No" campaign against illegal drug use, the Project is currently aimed at preventing drinking and driving, not drinking itself.

Abuse of alcohol "is an enormous problem area. Young adults use alcohol as a rite of passage, for male bonding, to ease socialization. We've tried to carve out something doable and achievable...Drunk driving is a more comfortable way to raise the issue of alcohol abuse," Winsten says.

Even campaigns against drunk driving have encountered trouble. Previous anti-drunk driving campaigns have used advertisements saying, in essence, "Don't Drink and Drive or You'll Get Caught," say participants in the Project. But these campaigns have not been effective, because so few people are ever arrested for drunk driving, say those fighting the problem.

As a result of this failure, Smith says, the "designated driver"--the member of a group who stays sober and drives the others home--has become "the concept of the future...It's the easiest way for people to go ahead with their lives and still make a responsible decision."

Encouraging the use of a designated driver "gets past the negative 'Don't Drink' image. It's addressed to a group not simply an individual. It's a message we can easily communicate. We can depict it in entertaiment programming. We can track it over time. And it gives social legitimacy to not drink," Winsten says.

Unlike most anti-drunk driving efforts, which confine their media work to sponsoring public service ads, the Project is also trying a new approach.

After intense lobbying efforts, Winsten persuaded the 13 television studios "to occasionally lay in a line or two of dialogue about drinking and driving," Winsten says. "A host will offer a couple a drink when they arrive at a party and one of them will say, `No thanks, I'm driving.' We are only asking them to do it occasionally, but we hope the cumulative effect will be significant."

TV shows including Wiseguy, Hunter, and Tattinger's have already included such lines in broadcast episodes, Winsten says, and 15 more shows have promised to do the same. In all, Winsten estimates two-thirds of the top 30 prime-time network shows will contain dialogue about drinking and driving. A few programs even plan to devote whole scenes or episodes to the topic, he says.

These lines of dialogue may reach people who might not respond to public service ads. "Different demographic groups follow different programs and identify with characters," Winsten says.