Where Some See Taboos, They See Opportunity

A poster plastered to a wall in Los Angeles shows a woman flipping two middle fingers at the camera. Her tongue sticks out, and her zebra-print bikini top is discarded on the grass beside her.

It is an advertisement for Overdrive Defense, a new company that is taking an unusually flashy approach to marketing products that aim to make drug use safer. The company sells a screaming-orange box of test strips that can be used to check cocaine, heroin and other drugs for contamination with fentanyl, a deadly synthetic opioid.

“We’re tossing you a lifeline, not some holier-than-thou lecture,” reads Overdrive’s website, which is scattered with images of dirt bikes and D.J. booths.

If that’s the kind of messaging that might make the “Just Say No” generation balk, it’s right at home in the colorful world of Brian Bordainick and Julie Schott, a pair of entrepreneurs best known for founding the acne patch company Starface.

Their formula goes something like this: Take a category associated with shame or stigma. Run straight at what makes it controversial. Then market the resulting product as a loud, confrontational conversation starter.

Since introducing Starface in 2019, the two have moved into contraceptive pills (the brand Julie Care), moisturizer (Futurewise) and smoking-cessation products (Blip). Overdrive, founded by Mr. Bordainick with Ms. Schott as an adviser, is their latest venture.