Educators

Thank you for thinking of the Ad Council and finding your way to this site. We always enjoy hearing from educators such as yourself and welcome the opportunity to share our work.

Who are we?

The Ad Council is the nation’s largest producer of public service advertisements and our mission is quite simple: to address the most pressing social issues of the day. Whether it was polio in the ‘50s, racial discrimination in the ‘60s, pollution in the ‘70s, AIDS in the 80s, recycling in the ‘90s, or today’s obesity epidemic, the Ad Council’s docket has evolved to address our country’s every changing needs. Today, our campaigns address energy efficiency, internet safety, financial literacy, youth reckless driving, cyberbullying and autism awareness, to name just a few. 

We have approximately 50 campaigns on our docket at any given time. The issues we address can broadly be categorized under the following topics (examples of each are included): 

• Education: Lifelong Literacy, High School Drop Out Prevention
• Health: Obesity Prevention, Anti-Steroids
• Safety: Cyberbullying, Online Sexual Exploitation
• Environment: Ocean Awareness
• Community: Adoption, Fatherhood Involvement

Another way we categorize our campaigns is by target audience. For example, we have campaigns that target:

• Teens: Teen Dating Violence
• Tweens (grades 4-6): Energy Efficiency, Inspiring Invention
• Parents: Nutrition Education, Booster Seat Education
• African-American community: College Access, Stroke Awareness 
• Hispanic community: Diabetes Management
• General Public: Financial Literacy, Predatory Lending  

For a complete list of campaigns, please click here.

And looking back, our historic campaigns feature some of America's most iconic advertising: Smokey Bear's "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires," McGruff the Crime Dog's "Take A Bite Out of Crime," the United Negro College Fund's "A Mind is a Terrible Thing To Waste" and "Peace Corps' "The Toughest Job You’ll Ever Love." 

Available Resources:

If you are teaching a course on communications, film, video production or writing, the following may be useful: 

• Impact of Public Service Advertising: Highlights from sample campaigns. 
• Public Service Advertising That Changed a Nation: The impact of nine iconic Ad Council campaigns from the past 65 years.
• White Paper: Healthy Lifestyles and Disease Prevention Media Campaign: A paper documenting the background, theoretical underpinnings, and strategic development of the Obesity Prevention campaign.
• Ad Council Campaign Case Studies: Adoption, Autism Awareness, Drunk Driving Prevention, Mentoring, Safe Gun Storage. These studies focus on each campaign's initial research, creative brief, campaign launch, public relations, evaluations and outcomes.
• Overview of Ad Council Evaluation Procedures: How we ensure and measure campaign effectiveness.
• Connecting with the Hispanic Market: A comprehensive overview of an increasingly important and growing segment of the U.S. population from a public service communications viewpoint. 

Please note: If you need a hard copy or you’re having trouble accessing any of the above materials, please email education@adcouncil.org.

Also, check out the Best Practices section of AdCouncil.org to learn how we create PSAs of the highest quality, how they get aired and distributed, and how we are leveraging new media.

Questions?

How can I access your PSAs? Do I need permission to use it? You probably have more questions now than when you started. Visit our Frequently Asked Questions, and if you don't find an answer there, email education@adcouncil.org.  

Back to Educational Resources