This ad depicts a true story. It begins: A young man walks around his car, which is up on a jack. He says in voice-over: “I got some Oxy after I hurt my neck. First I took them to feel better. Then I kept taking them. I didn’t know they’d be this addictive. I didn’t know how far I’d go to get more.”

Here’s how far he’d go: He lies down under the car. Then he kicks out the jack.

You see the car fall, hear a crunch. “Joe S. from Maine broke his back to get more prescription opioids,” the screen says. And then a voice-over: “Opioid dependence can happen after just five days. Know the truth, spread the truth.”

A similar ad shows a woman taking off her seatbelt and deliberately crashing her car. In another, a man breaks his hand with a hammer. In another, a man slams his arm in a door. Together, those comprised the first national ad campaign in America aimed at preventing opioid misuse.

They came from the Truth Initiative, the organization that was behind truth ads that helped bring about one of the most important public health victories in American history: In 1996, 34 percent of high school seniors had smoked a cigarette in the previous month — the same as in 1975. But by 2019, less than 6 percent smoked.