"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

Single-payer health care advocates arrested at Senate hearing. On May 5, 2009 advocates of a U.S. national health care program disrupted a Senate Finance Committee event to call for single-payer healthcare to be part of the discussion. The eight protesters were subsequently arrested. The protesters included representatives of Physicians for a National Health Program, which favors the The United States National Health Care Act, H.R. 676. Committee Chair Max Baucus (D - Montana), who has received more money in contributions from health insurance companies than any other member of Congress, favors requiring Americans to purchase private health insurance from those companies. Baucus, who has previously said that single-payer is "off the table," responded to the doctors and their fellow activists with, “I want you to know I care deeply about your views," and then, "we need more police [to eject protesters]."
posted by univac on May 6, 2009 - 146 comments

Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy - a commentary in Nature that says, "we call for a presumption that mentally competent adults should be able to engage in cognitive enhancement using drugs". Farkesque debate here. [more inside]
posted by daksya on Dec 8, 2008 - 57 comments

Another one bites the dust, and Canada's largest city reaches its yearly average cyclist fatality tally, less than half-way through 2008. While Toronto is a moderately bike friendly place, its 2001 plan to join up 1074km of city bikeways within 10 years seems to have fallen flat (as have the city coroner's cycling safety recommendations). Could this be the first opportunity for the newborn Toronto Cyclists' Union to make a mark? Will a Canadian city ever join the world's best? Ah well, let's just go for a ride. In Quebec. [more inside]
posted by anthill on May 29, 2008 - 46 comments

Think you can guess HIV status just by looking? Via NYTimes article
posted by ThePinkSuperhero on May 19, 2008 - 62 comments

An unprecedented five consecutive years of stagnant funding for the National Institutes of Health is putting America at risk - a few prominent research institutions get together to voice their concern over flat funding of the National Institutes of Health over the past 5 years, in their report The Broken Pipeline (pdf). Bloggers comment [1, 2, 3].
posted by Gyan on Mar 14, 2008 - 40 comments

The Predatory Lending Association takes a comic look at the dark practice of payday lending. Just when you thought charging 391% interest wasn't legal. This is from the same folks that created WalkScore.
posted by commonmedia on Nov 13, 2007 - 40 comments

Ambiguity of Disability: experience some disability-based utilitarianism courtesy of the hippest of the Cream of Cripples: virtual provocateur Bill Shannon a.k.a. "Crutch".
posted by progosk on Jul 16, 2007 - 8 comments

The Center for Nursing Advocacy seems like your typical professional advocacy group—the group's mandate is "to increase public understanding of the central, front-line role nurses play in modern health care." While often the group does its work by highlighting serious issues facing the nursing profession, the Center also keeps a watchful eye on portrayals of nurses in popular culture, both good and bad. And then there are the reviews that, frankly, seem to be stretching things just a bit.
posted by chrominance on Jul 14, 2007 - 17 comments

INTERVOICE (International Network for Training, Education and Research into Hearing Voices) "offers information, publications, research, and good practice on hearing voices and other key issues." Voice hearing is surprisingly common, even normal. Many people find it a pleasurable and positive experience. Find everything from stencil graffiti to a recent New York Times magazine article on the work of the Hearing Voices Movement. (w i k i s)
posted by srs on Mar 29, 2007 - 20 comments

Dopey, Boozy, Smoky—and Stupid - Mark Kleiman of UCLA examines drug policy in general and offers some suggestions [via]
posted by daksya on Jan 30, 2007 - 49 comments

The Music Notation Modernization Association ... or possible ways to simplify reading chromatic music (as opposed to diatonic music). Of course, Arnold Schoenberg beat them to it.
posted by persona non grata on Aug 9, 2006 - 20 comments

Howard Schmidt thinks that developers should be accountable for security holes. Schneier responds.
posted by afroblanca on Oct 20, 2005 - 29 comments

Physicians and scientists around the world even go as far as to state that smoking leads to premature death. Don’t we all know someone who smokes constantly, even heavily, yet is still living — or has lived — to the mature age of eighty, ninety, and older? Furthermore, the MDs and PhDs state that smoking causes cancer and emphysema. If this diagnosis were definitive, wouldn’t these afflictions affect all smokers equally, rather than the small percentage that it actually does affect?
posted by Eekacat on Mar 23, 2005 - 78 comments

What Can Art Do for You? We’ve all heard that Art enriches our communities, makes our children smarter, and brings in money and jobs. In response to the recently released RAND study (PDF) which critiqued the arguments made by arts organizations for the funding of the arts, Doug McLennan of ArtsJournal.com invited “11 prominent arts people” to discuss if there is a better way to advocate for the arts. Why do we need to market the arts? Shouldn’t Art advocate for itself? Are there different ways to sell the benefits of the arts in this day and age?
posted by geryon on Mar 14, 2005 - 6 comments

Campaigns track voters' personal data. Ever wonder why you get mail and calls from particular political groups, and not others? Turns out the political parties are developing far richer datasets on individuals than the government is. Aristotle International, Inc. (mentioned in the article) is the giant in the field, but there's much smaller ones all over the place (Weave, for instance, helps with environmental activism, and Local Victory is an example on the right). On the one hand, with limited resources, campaigns would say they must do this. On the other hand (as the article points out) it may partially explain why fewer and fewer seem to participate in the electoral process.
posted by MidasMulligan on Jan 20, 2004 - 22 comments

IHateMyLife.Us. Homeless advocacy and support, from someone who's been there.
posted by PrinceValium on Sep 7, 2003 - 26 comments

Why I Hate Advocacy. Baseball, politics, and programming languages? Mark Jason-Dominus created a classic article that is really about the general human tendancy towards flawed dialogue and the pitfalls surrounding evangelism, even though it's specifically directed towards the perl programming community. Indeed, as in the past, some may see the "spectre of Metafilter itself" in Mark's words.
posted by weston on Aug 4, 2003 - 19 comments

Nader takes on the SEC, will a campaign be next? Bit by bit, Ralph Nader does what he does best, annoying those who abuse power. This last year, he has kept with advocacy that is in parallel with smart campaign strategy and the creation of the SEC watchdog group is an example of that. The Greens are still debating him in the forums, wondering if he is still their guy. Maybe they should be asking if he's OUR guy?
posted by StormBear on Mar 4, 2003 - 4 comments

Sometimes a kind of existential perception of the absurd comes over me and I see with awful certainty the hypocrisies and posturing of myself and my fellow men. Carl Sagan commenting (circa 1971) on an experience he had while high on Cannabis over at Marijuana-Users.com. One of the only efforts (along with Cannabis Consumers) to get people to "come out" and help remove inaccurate stereotypes from the mind of the public.
posted by botono9 on Sep 13, 2002 - 64 comments

Clubs and fraternal organizations to join today: Kiwanis, Scottish Rite, Rotary, and maybe Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.
posted by charlesv on Jun 7, 2002 - 5 comments

familiesofseptember11.org is the website for the advocacy/political action groups being formed by the families of 9.11 victims. WTC United Family Group is another. Do these families have too much influence on post-9.11 policy or is it their right as someone directly affected?
posted by owillis on Dec 12, 2001 - 14 comments

Strip tease for the trees. Now this is environmentalism that every red-blooded American male can get behind. What next, "Chippendales Say Earth First!"
posted by MAYORBOB on Nov 11, 2001 - 13 comments