Advertising in the public interest?

When we think of advertisements and commercials, we generally think of those ads that market various brands, especially the ones that either engrave themselves on our very souls because of their memorable songs (they were jingles back in my childhood days!) or because of their clever and witty characters or style. We talk about the commercials unveiled during the Super Bowl for weeks afterward.

But there is another type of advertisement that is also sometimes quite memorable, though most of us rarely consider that rather than spending millions of dollars for spot during a sporting event, these ads have traditionally run at no cost as a public service provided by the networks or cable companies. These are called Public Service Announcements or PSAs.

PSAs may raise awareness of a public health or safety issue, promote a charitable organization, promote environmental awareness and healthy behaviors, or recruit people to join or support an organization or movement. PSA's developed after WWII as an outgrowth of the War Advertising Council, which later became the Ad Council. For more on the history of PSA's, click here.

Although low-budget PSAa can be deadly boring, those that are created by professional advertising teams can be as clever, witty and beautifully photographed as any corporate commercial. Some notable PSAs have become a central part of popular culture and have left indelible impressions upon us and upon society. Rosie the Riveter (pictured above) was born as part of a public service campaign, as was Smokey the Bear, who stars in the longest-running campaign in Ad Council history:

The "Crying Indian" commercial from the early 1970s is a classic environmental PSA:

According to the Ad Council,

More than four decades ago, the Ad Council partnered with Keep America Beautiful to create a powerful visual image that dramatized how litter and other forms of pollution were hurting the environment, and how every individual has the responsibility to help protect it. The ad, which featured Native American actor Iron Eyes Cody, "The Crying Indian," first aired on Earth Day in 1971. Created by ad agency Marstellar, Inc., the campaign used the line, "People Start Pollution. People can stop it." The ad became one of the most memorable and successful campaigns in advertising history and was named one of the top 100 advertising campaigns of the 20th Century by Ad Age Magazine.

And who can forget this anti-drug PSA from the late 1980s?

The Crash Test Dummies were the stars of the seat belt commercials of the 1980s-1990s, made memorable by such PSAs as "Game Show":

Here is a recent British PSA that is quite clever, part of a larger campaign aimed to make drivers more aware of bicyclists:

I'll end with an especially moving Ad Council campaign from 2001 aimed at creating unity in a nation divided by racism, immigration fears, and particularly the fear of foreigners after 9/11. As the Ad Council explains,

Following the tragedies of September 11th, the Ad Council and Austin-based ad agency GSD&M sought to celebrate the ideals that keep this country strong by highlighting the nation's extraordinary diversity. Showing people of all ages, races and religions stating, "I am an American," the ads helped the country to unite in the wake of the terrorist attacks. On the air just ten days after the tragedies, the ads conclude with the American motto, E Pluribus Unum, or "Out of Many, One." The response to these PSAs received by the Ad Council from Americans all over the world was unprecedented.