Community News
Americans Tune In To Ways To Help Others
By
Sep 9, 2005, 00:37

(NAPSI)-If you're like many Americans, chances are you've learned "a lot from a dummy," know that "only you can prevent forest fires" and are more than willing to "take a bite out of crime." But did you know that those public service advertisements (PSAs) have contributed more that catchy slogans to our daily language?

For instance, within six months of launching a mentoring PSA campaign, there was a 75 percent increase in Big Brothers and Big Sisters mentoring applications. Similarly, the United Negro College Fund's PSA campaign ("A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste") helped graduate more than 350,000 deserving minority students. In addition, since Smokey Bear PSAs came on the scene, the amount of acreage lost in the U.S. to wildfires has decreased from 22 million a year to eight million.

These PSAs and countless others were created by the Ad Council, a nonprofit group that has produced thousands of PSAs over the past 60 years. The Ad Council is the result of a pro-bono collaboration from the communications industry. Ad agencies from throughout the country create the PSAs for free and the media donates the time and space to run them.

The Ad Council's first campaign was launched in 1942, weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Its earliest campaign helped drive 85 million Americans to buy war bonds. Since then, other campaigns such as "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk" and "Pollution: It's A Crying Shame" have helped raise awareness about critically important issues, inspire individuals to action and even save lives.

For more information or to view some favorite PSAs, visit www.adcouncil.org.

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