For nonprofits and government agencies, PSAs offer a win-win PR situation with free media placement and visibility in a paid media environment. And on occasion, they can
literally inspire the nation. In the 1940s, the public service campaign featuring "Rosie the Riveter" inspired women with a patriotic message to join the workforce during the
Second World War. This campaign wound up increasing the number of women employed in factories by 20% and still remains today as a feminist icon.
But in today's cluttered and fractured media market, could a PSA be as powerful as Rosie was during the 1940s?
"Well, it certainly has become a more competitive arena," says Susan Jacobsen, vice president of corporate communications for the Ad Council. "With the fragmentation of
media companies and stations running their own PSAs (i.e. NBC's "The More You Know"), it is making it more of a challenge."
Jacobsen does admit the Ad Council, which is arguably the largest distributor of PSAs, may face fewer difficulties thanks to its logo, which she says is seen as something akin
to the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. "When public service directors receive our PSAs, they know that the issue is one of significant importance and the
campaign has been developed based on thorough and credible research," she says.
But at least one expert feels that situation is changing unfavorably, particularly in television.
"The networks are doing a lot less than they used to," says Bill Goodwill, CEO of Goodwill Communications, Inc., a PSA consulting firm in Burk, VA, comparing today's TV
market to the broadcast world before deregulation in the late 1970s and 1980s. He echoes Jacobsen in noting how the networks have narrowed the PSA placement opportunities with
their own public service segments. "They're also using their own spokespersons to talk about issues, and that really doesn't help the nonprofits."
Federal Outreach
While TV offers the highest visibility for PSA placement, it is not the only media outlet available. "We've found that a unified, three part campaign, including television,
radio and print, is the best approach for us," says M.J. Pizzella, associate administrator for the Office of Citizen Services at the U.S. General Services Administration
(GSA). "We receive especially enthusiastic responses from radio because most of the PSAs that stations receive tend to be on heavier topics. We like to create light-hearted
and inviting radio campaigns, giving stations an upbeat alternative to some of the more serious topics."
Another federal agency that relies heavily on PSA distribution to promote itself is the Peace Corps. "We've been gratified to have coverage in multiple formats,"
explains Linda Isaac, marketing strategist at the Office of Communications for Peace Corps, who relies heavily on "out-of-home" placements on billboards and transit displays. "We
launched our first national out-of-home campaign in the last year with tremendous success. These are very effective for us in terms of presence, and return on investment to
printing costs. We have found queen size bus boards especially helpful."
However, Isaac is not about to turn down in-home placements. "Television and radio offer great reach and print gives us great targeting," she says.
GLAAD V. TVC
Effective PSAs have a way of entering the national cultural heritage - the previously mentioned Rosie the Riveter plus Smokey the Bear and McGruff the Crime Dog became American
icons. But on occasion, a PSA can stir debate due to its message or its sponsors. In the 1980s, an animated PSA for pre-natal care aroused controversy showing a fetus smoking a
cigarette. More recently, a pro-tolerance PSA created a new firestorm.
On May 9, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) aired a PSA at the end of an episode of the CBS soap opera "As The World Turns." Damon Romine,
entertainment media director at GLAAD, says that the PSA was part of the organization's "Be an Ally, Be a Friend" campaign, which was "aimed at a broad audience encouraging
viewers to take a stand for equality and to treat one another with acceptance and respect."
Following the PSA's one-time broadcast, a conservative lobbying group called the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) publicized its own anger at the PSA and the network
that broadcast it.
"The issue is that CBS has joined with an organization that seeks to silence people of faith and attack people of faith based on their view of homosexuality and homosexual
marriage," says Andrea Lafferty, TVC executive director. (TVC's Web site claims it generated 3,000 protest e-mails sent to CBS).
GLAAD, however, was not concerned by the negative reaction from this group. "Without seeing the PSA," Romine says, "TVC made outrageous claims that had no basis in reality in
an effort to get media attention. GLAAD and CBS realized that the best response to their hysteria was to ignore them. The strategy ultimately kept this anti-gay group from
getting the national platform they were looking for."
Aside from TVC's complaint, Romine says that the campaign was a huge success. "After the CBS PSA aired there was an immediate response from viewers," he continues. "Our message
had been heard. Within an hour of it's airing, we received an e-mail from a gay teen in rural Arkansas who felt abandoned by his family. A mother in Kansas wrote asking for help
supporting her newly out son. This was just the beginning of responses heard by GLAAD."
So could there be another PSA as powerful as Rosie the riveter? The answer seems to depend on the medium the PSA is sent through as well how malleable the promotion can be.
One might imagine the Internet would be the ideal environment to spread PSA messages, but Bill Goodwill has not found this to be the case.
"We find it extremely labor intensive," he says about securing PSA placements online. "For some reason, many of the Webmasters feel like their space is too valuable to give
away."
And, of course, there is always the issue of the generous media outlet who donates airtime or editorial space for this free message.
"We're always grateful for whatever time broadcasters or publications can give us," says Pizzella at the GSA. "We know that there are a lot of other issues that are also
important to communities, and that broadcasters have less time than ever to share with PSA providers."
Contacts: Susan Jacobsen, [email protected]; Bill Goodwill, [email protected]; Damon Romine, [email protected]; Andrea Lafferty, [email protected]; Linda Isaac, [email protected]; MJ Pizzella, [email protected].