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Today’s Case

Ole Miss athletes leverage NIL opportunity to combat Opioid Epidemic

Ole Miss student-athletes are taking their role-model status and using it to benefit the greater good of the Oxford community.

Six Ole Miss athletes, highlighted by standout wide receiver Jordan Watkins, have partnered with HarborPath to star in a campaign that aims to spread awareness on the dangers of fentanyl-laced pills and highlight the current resources available to students at Ole Miss to combat the Opioid Epidemic.

The campaign, facilitated by the Grove Collective, features three male athletes and three female athletes representing football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, volleyball, and softball. The first run of the social media promotions will begin later this month.

Outside of their work at the university, HarborPath provides life-saving medication at no-cost to those in need in twenty-four states. While the NIL based campaign at Ole Miss is the first of its kind from HarborPath, the non-profit has plans to expand their NIL based awareness to other colleges in Mississippi and beyond.

Ken Trogdon, President of HarborPath: This campaign is an opportunity to partner with [Ole Miss] student-athletes on spreading awareness of these resources. We believe that Ole Miss students receiving information on life-saving resources from their student-athlete peers will be an impactful way to raise awareness and ultimately save lives.”

The Verdict

• Impact on a greater scale

  • The Ole Miss student-athletes leveraging their social media platforms to speak about the risk of the Opioid Epidemic, along with the partnership of HarborPath, could literally save lives.

    • Additionally, the campaign highlights the resources that Ole Miss students have access to, which again, can be life saving.

  • Last year, the San Diego State men’s basketball team partnered with the U.S. Attorney’s Office on a fentanyl campaign through NIL.

• More difficult conversations being had via NIL?

  • While it’s tough to speak about certain things (cancer, death, etc.) this can be a viable route for future NIL deals to bring awareness to specific topics and create education.

  • As long as campaigns are thoughtful, well researched and executed, these can be seen as positive in the eyes of the public.

JBL Audio launches “JBL Campus” NIL initiative

The company is partnering with 25 student-athletes to amplify uninhibited expression. Check out this video for more!

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