One could argue that recruiting posters from the Revolution were a form of public service advertising (PSAs). While stretching it a little, the widely-read pamphlets of Thomas Paine called Common Sense, advocating our independence from England, could also be considered a form of PSAs. This form of communication, sometimes called “public interest advertising,” has been used to warn the populace against sharing secrets, encouraging hard work, and purchasing savings bonds.  More recently, the Crying Indian, Smokey Bear and McGruff the Crime Dog have become social icons.

One of the best coffee table books about advertising was published by Advertising Age, called “Advertising – the First 200 Years in America.”  If you make it towards the back of this wonderful book, which tells about a force that helped to shape America’s economic landscape, there is a chapter titled: Causes – Advertising in the Service of the Community. It is disappointing that this important chapter was placed towards the back of the book - almost a footnote - after 15 previous chapters dedicated to selling goods and services.

As a form of mass communication, it has not only had a tremendous social impact, it has had a substantial economic impact as well.  As an indication of how big this "industry" is, the National Association of Broadcasters tells us that the amount of public service airtime donated by their member stations annually amounts to $10 billion, and that is only from the broadcaster perspective. No one knows how much the feds and the non-profit world spend on PSAs every year, but it is safe to say it is in the billions.

One of the age-old questions about public service advertising is - do they actually get people to take the desired campaign behavior?  While limited space in this newsletter does not permit us to fully explore this question, there is some compelling evidence that PSAs do indeed work.

In the past, the goal of many PSA campaigns was to call a toll-free hotline, request pamphlets, etc., and case histories on PSAs provide many examples of how they have met that test. Today, however, many organizations using PSAs want to drive people to their website where they can gain a more meaningful experience, and begin the long journey leading to behavior and attitude change.

Some data provided by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), gives some insight on how PSAs can help organizations achieve their mission. Several years ago, we distributed a TV PSA campaign for the NIA to promote exercise among the elderly.

The centerpiece of the campaign was John Glenn, America’s first astronaut to orbit the earth who went back into space on his 80th birthday. At the end of the TV spot, the public was encouraged to write for a free Exercise Guide. TV PSAs were the primary method for promoting the Guide, and the campaign generated hundreds of phone calls to a dedicated 800 telephone line, along with 125,000 orders for the Guide.

Later, the NIA launched another TV PSA campaign designed to get more people to visit a senior-friendly website called NIH SeniorHealth at http://nihseniorhealth.gov/. The NIA staff monitored the website visits before and after the PSA campaign launch to determine what impact it had on overall visits to the site. According to Stephanie Dailey, Senior Public Affairs Specialist for NIA, “During the first six months of the PSA campaign, the traffic to our website increased by 60,000 hits. It leveled off, however, during the later part of the year.”

Another expert in tracking Web statistics, Andrew Bates, at Network Solutions, says that “One of the strongest attributes of the Internet is that you can track traffic down to the exact moment when someone came on your site, how they got there, how much time they spent there and the pages they visited. By creating a special URL for your PSA campaign that is only mentioned in your PSAs such as www.miraclemile/PSA/TV, you can also isolate the true impact that PSAs have on overall campaign response.”

There are many articles on our PSA Research Center at www.psaresearch.com that attest to the efficacy of this form of communication. By typing the words “campaign effectiveness” in the search engine on the site, you will see various articles on how PSAs have helped to generate the desired response.

With over one million people being diagnosed with cancer in the United States each year—and many more cases in other countries across the globe—there is an urgent need for a new direction in battling this disease. If you want to maintain a healthy lifestyle, then spend a little time on the website maintained by The Cancer Project at www.CancerProject.org. This site has two main goals: to make cancer prevention a top priority, and to improve survival after cancer has been diagnosed, by providing comprehensive information about the role of dietary factors in keeping people healthy. The Cancer Project provides classes, books, video programs, fact sheets, brochures, and other educational materials on cancer prevention and survival.

Alma Powell, who chairs America’s Promise Alliance founded by her husband, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, has teamed up with AARP to create more volunteer opportunities for Americans of all ages.  The organization, ServiceNation, is a coalition of 100 organizations and their goal is to inspire 100 million citizens to volunteer by 2020 by donating a year to public service. “Traditionally the spotlight has been on youth service,” says Tom Nelson, AARP chief operating officer.  “AARP’s unique contribution is to show that we have a huge resource in older people – they can help tackle the key social issues in this country.”  To learn more about Service Nation, go to www.servicenation.org.  AARP has also created a social network on their site called Create the Good which can be found at http://www.aarp.org/CreateTheGood.com/.

Whether your work is local and domestic, or international in scope, there is a resource called Community Toolbox  that bills itself as “Promoting community health and development by connecting people, ideas and resources…”  They have some excellent public service advertising resource materials which can be found at: http://ctb.ku.edu/tools/en/sub_section_main_1065.htm

The MyGoodDeed mission is to create a lasting and forward-looking legacy that forever remembers and honors the victims of 9/11 and world terrorism in general. The organization also pays tribute to those who have risen in service in response to terrorist attacks. 

MyGoodDeed seeks to accomplish its mission by encouraging Americans and others throughout the world to voluntarily perform at least one good deed or another service activity on the anniversary of 9/11 each year. They also hope to inspire people to carry forward everyday in their lives, through their actions toward others, the spirit of unity, understanding, and service that brought America and the world together in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. For more information, go to: www.911dayofservice.org/ (Editor's Note: if you view the video on their site and don't shed some tears or at least some emotion, then check your pulse.)

EIC provides branded First Draft technical assistance service to the creative community, broadcast news directors and station community affairs directors to aid in accurate depiction of any and all health and social issues. “Entertainment programming helps define our culture, and EIC is working with leading entertainers, top industry executives, writers, producers, and directors to present accurate information to audiences about a myriad of health and social concerns, often to the viewers benefit,” said Brian Dyak, EIC president and CEO. Accurate depictions focus the realities and resources available to address: substance use disorders such as teen drinking, addiction behaviors, treatment and recovery; mental illnesses such as bipolar depression, suicide and PTSD; foster care; and women’s health concerns such as domestic violence, reproductive health, cancer and aging. For more information please visit http://www.eiconline.org/resources/publications/.

Heading in the wrong direction.  According to Nedra Weinreich, an expert in social marketing  whose blog is at http://www.social-marketing.com/blog/,  the National Center for Health Marketing (NCHM) is slated to be eliminated by the Centers for Disease Control which has hosted the organization. What this means exactly for the practice of health marketing within the CDC is unclear, but it undermines, to some extent, the credibility of the social marketing field.

What makes this particularly ironic is that NCHM's highly successful Third National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media just brought together one thousand professionals who are using these tools to address disparate health issues.  If you want to sign a petition for forming a privately funded organization, click here. petition for forming the association.

For more information on the goals and purpose of the organization go to:
http://socialmarketing.blogs.com/r_craiig_lefebvres_social/2009/07/global-social-marketing-moving-to-action.html