Road safety adverts will no longer be shown on television in England because the Department for Transport has decided to "re-prioritise" its budget.
Commenting on the cutting of TV adverts, road safety Minister Stephen Hammond said: "Road deaths are at a record low but we know that one death is one too many.
[more inside]
posted by marienbad
on Feb 10, 2013 -
15 comments
Following the
March 2011 earthquake in Japan, commercials largely disappeared from television. To fill space between the news reports and lists of missing people, the
Ad Council of Japan put together a number of PSAs. Since there were only five or ten of them, the PSAs
played thousands of times over the course of a few months, searing themselves into the memory of the Japanese public. Most were typical messages about
common courtesy,
perseverance,
listening to your kids,
conservation, and
international support. But
one PSA in particular quickly took on a life of its own, instantly being mashed up with a classic Japanese TV trope:
Robot Transformation Sequences!
[more inside]
posted by azuresunday
on Mar 11, 2012 -
37 comments
Caution: Disturbing, potentially triggering and possibly NSFW content: The Meth Project, known for their gritty, confrontational and disturbing
online and
print ads, which graphically depict the effects of methamphetamine drug use, launched a
new, interactive website last week. The revamped site gives visitors an opportunity to
share their own stories. They've also premiered four new 30-second television PSA's by the director of
Black Swan and
Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky:
E.R.,
Deep End,
Losing Control and
Desperate.
(Via) [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Nov 16, 2011 -
103 comments
A Public Service Announcement. Here are some sobering facts about the world today: Every day, millions of kids go to sleep having never been introduced to Chewbacca, and, worse, countless more think Greedo shot first. We here at
Asylum want to make sure you and your child have an open and healthy conversation about Jar Jar and the differences between a "good trilogy" and an "uh-oh trilogy." So we've provided you with this, a PSA on talking to your child about Star Wars.
posted by Fizz
on Nov 18, 2010 -
38 comments
"What if America wasn't America?" That was the question posed by a series of ads broadcast in the wake of the September 11th attacks, ads which depicted a dystopian America bereft of liberty:
Library -
Diner -
Church. Together with more positive ads like
Remember Freedom and
I Am an American, they encouraged frightened viewers to cherish their freedoms and defend against division and prejudice in the face of terrorism (
seven years previously). The campaign was the work of the
Ad Council, a non-profit agency that employs the creative muscle of volunteer advertisers to raise awareness for social issues of national importance. Founded during WWII as the War Advertising Council, the organization has been behind
some of the most memorable public service campaigns in American history, including
Rosie the Riveter,
Smokey the Bear,
McGruff the Crime Dog, and
the Crash Test Dummies. And the Council is still at it today, producing striking, funny, and above all
effective PSAs on everything from
student invention to
global warming to
arts education to
community service.
Additional resources:
A-to-Z index of Ad Council campaigns -
Campaigns organized by category -
Award-winning campaigns -
PSA Central: A free download directory of TV, radio, and print PSAs
(registration req'd) -
An exhaustive history of the Ad Council [46-page PDF] -
YouTube channel -
Vimeo channel -
Twitter feed
posted by Rhaomi
on Sep 11, 2009 -
69 comments
