Adlibbing: Inside PSAs

An Abducted Child is Everyone's Child

We have all experienced the outrage that accompanies hearing about a child that has been abducted.  We want to do something to help rescue that child!  Our new Wireless AMBER Alert PSA campaign is about a new and important tool -- an extension of the broadcast and highway sign AMBER Alert program -- that allows people to do just that.

The campaign launched yesterday with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, The Wireless Foundation and the U.S. Department of Justice to inspire cell phone users and other wireless subscribers to register to receive text message alerts about abducted children in their area.

Statistics show that when a child is abducted, the first three hours are most critical to recovery efforts. Since its creation, the AMBER Alert program has helped reunite more than 260 children with their families. The program's success is based on turning every citizen into an extension of the law enforcement team looking for the child. 

The goal of this new campaign is to encourage all wireless subscribers to visit www.wirelessamberalerts.org and generate one million new sign-ups in 2006.  And with the successful launch that resulted in coverage in USA Today and 30 TV interviews including CNN and NBC, we're off to a great start. 

The wonderful creative was produced pro bono by New York ad agency Merkley + Partners.  The research leading up to the creative uncovered compelling insights -- "An abducted child is everyone's child."

The Have’s and the Have Nots

David Brooks was a featured speaker at the United Way’s Annual Leadership Conference in Denver last Thursday.  The New York Times columnist and author was a great choice to address the 1700 United Way staff and volunteers from across the country as he has some fascinating observations about the future of children in America.

For me, his remarks not only underscored the critical importance of our campaign with United Way of America on early childhood learning, it created a context and sense of urgency for many of the Ad Council’s campaigns.

“As society becomes more fair, it becomes less fair” Brooks posited.  We all wrinkled our brows at that.  But he explained that as access to education is made available to all children, the widening gap in parents who can build their children’s human capital give them an unfair advantage.  It generally families with college educated parents who know how to prepare their children to learn and know how to navigate them through academic institutions to earn a college education.

Low income parents without college degrees are much less likely to pass along verbal skills and frequent interaction with adults that builds social skills and confidence.  They are also not as able to guide their children in college prep curriculum and the application/financial aid process.  Something as simple as lost transcripts can derail a child’s higher education in families that have no clue how to go about finding them.

Of the many statistics Brooks quoted, two framed the condition in our country particularly well:

Household income greatly influences children’s rate of college graduation.  Households earning $96,000/year have children with a 1 in 2 graduation rate.  At $50,000/year the rate is 1 in 10 and at $36,000/year the rate is 1 in 17. 20% of the U.S. population has 85% of our country’s wealth.  The bottom 60% of our population has 4% of our country’s wealth.

My heart breaks for the millions of parents who want their children to have a better life than they have but lack the knowledge to pass along the skills needed to navigate their way to an education that allows them to compete in our information based workforce.  Brooks’ speech wove a thread through many, many Ad Council campaigns from early childhood development, importance of math and science, high school drop-out prevention, teacher recruitment and two more in development college access and invention and creativity.

Can we use the power of communications to mentor these parents and kids?  Sure we can.  The only question is how many can we touch?

Excuse me, I’ve got to get back to work!

Expanding Our Messages

We spend a lot of time talking about the creative process that leads to the fabulous public service advertising campaigns our agency volunteers produce.  But the best creative in the world can’t create social change if the target audience doesn’t see or hear it.  Countless times I’m contacted by people who have created a PSA and can’t understand why they can’t get media companies to give them time and space to run it.

Media public service directors are bombarded with literally hundreds of requests for free media.  In our survey of TV PSA directors they report receiving an average of 100 tapes a month from organizations asking for donated media.  Adding to the competition for this precious inventory are the media outlet’s own branded public service messages, such as NBC’s The More You Know, as well as an increase in promotional ads.

It’s remarkable that the Ad Council is able to generate over $1.8 billion a year in support of our campaigns.  At a time when pressure on non commercial inventory has never been higher we have experienced an amazing 40% increase from 2003 to 2005.  Our campaigns earn over $35 million on average from television, radio, outdoor, print and the internet.

This doesn’t happen by accident.  It’s true that media companies see the Ad Council logo as something of a “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval”.  And with every new campaign, we package and distribute the work to 28,000 media outlets.  But the reality is that our media department puts a tremendous amount of effort into securing donated media.  Over the past three years we have begun three initiatives that have driven the increases we have seen.  The first is that we have begun asking major media companies for an upfront commitment of donated media – and this year these commitments will reach $600 million or about a third of our total.  The second is utilizing technology to promote and deliver our work to media supporters – from email marketing to offering shopping cart technology to PSA directors ordering our work online.  The third strategy has been placing full time executives in the top ten markets across the country to call on local media outlets.

Our campaigns are fortunate – some would even say lucky – to have the media support they enjoy.  But as my father used to say, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

One Size Doesn't Fit All

Losing weight and getting fit is, for most Americans, a daunting task.  The research we have conducted in developing our obesity prevention campaign revealed that people see it as impossible to fit into their already over scheduled lives.  They think getting fit means joining a gym, completely changing the way they feed their families and that it requires more sacrifices than they are willing to make.  That’s why the “Small Steps” campaign on behalf of Health and Human Services is brilliant.  It gives people small things – take the stairs instead of the elevator or snack on fruits and vegetables – that they can incorporate into their everyday lives that add up to a healthier lifestyle.

But we also know that role modeling is a huge motivation.

There is no better role model than our feature speaker that addressed the Ad Council board of directors last week, Governor Mike Huckabee, from Arkansas.  Governor Huckabee told the story of his personal journey over the past two years after he was diagnosed with diabetes. His doctor told him if he didn’t change his ways he could only expect to live another 10 years and that during that time his quality of life would deteriorate.  He began immediately to eat healthier and exercise -- walking at first.

Fast forward to today and Governor Huckabee has lost over 110 pounds.  And he did it without surgery.  He is getting ready to run his fifth marathon.  He says he can do things now that he could never even do as a young man.  And he has become an evangelist for leading a healthy lifestyle.  Both in his role as governor of Arkansas and as the Chairman of the National Governors’ Association, he uses his political influence to advocate for policies that support a Healthy America – the title of his blueprint for the future.  Plus, he partnered with President Clinton and the American Heart Association in brokering an agreement with the Beverage Association to limit soft drinks in schools which was in the press Wednesday.

Governor Huckabee addressed our board because he has been a supporter of all our obesity prevention work for some time.  In addition to our Small Steps campaign we have a kid targeted campaign that addresses the benefits of good food choices, a disease prevention campaign that stresses maintaining a healthy weight and exercise and another campaign that is in development on the new food pyramid guidelines from the USDA.  The Governor used our board meeting to personally underscore the importance of our work to convince Americans to lead healthier lives.

To illustrate the trend in obesity, particularly in children, he challenged the board to remember their third-grade class photo.  He asked, “How many of the kids in your third-grade class were obese?”  Then, he suggested we visit a third-grade class today and make the comparison.  And, he reported, this is the generation that is – for the first time in the history of our country – not predicted to live as long as their parents because of complications from obesity.

If it was possible to further motivate an already motivated Ad Council board to tackle this problem using the power of public service advertising, Governor Huckabee did.  And from comments I received from individuals after his speech, a lot of folks will be hitting the gym this week.