A Letter from Peggy Conlon

I am very pleased to introduce the premiere issue of PSA, El Boletín, the first Ad Council newsletter dedicated exclusively to PSAs targeting Hispanics in the U.S. PSA, El Boletín will be published quarterly as a resource to keep you abreast of our current Hispanic campaigns.

The Ad Council began producing Spanish-language PSAs in 1968, with the launch of a campaign to address the rehabilitation of the handicapped. Since that time, we have been committed to delivering to the nationwide Hispanic population critical messages on education, community, health and safety (including AIDS education), high school dropout prevention and drunk driving.

Today, nearly 50 percent of our campaigns have Spanish-language components or are targeted to the Hispanic community. Most importantly, thanks to you, our campaigns are making a difference. Your continued support of our PSAs ensures that our critical messages reach their intended audience and make the difference. Thank you.

We look forward to reporting on new campaigns and demonstrating the success of our efforts with you in future issues, and we are grateful for your continuing support.

Sincerely,

Peggy Conlon
President & CEO
The Advertising Council

Shrek Seeks to Inspire Kids to Get Up and Play

New TV spots featuring characters from DreamWorks’ Shrek urge kids to “Get Up and Play an Hour a Day.”

Alarmingly, the percentage of youth in America who are overweight has more than tripled since 1980, with more than 12.5 million school-age children currently considered overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Continuing the effort to prevent childhood obesity, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and the Ad Council joined with DreamWorks Animation SKG in February to launch a series of PSAs featuring characters from the movie Shrek. The English and Spanish spots use the slogan “Be a Player: Get up and play an hour a day” (“Vamos a Jugar” in Spanish) and urge all children to engage in physical activity.

Created pro bono by GSD&M, the TV, outdoor and Web ads complement the current Childhood Obesity Prevention “Can your food do that?” PSAs, which promote the benefits of healthy eating. The new ads direct children and families to visit HHS’s newly redesigned Web site, www.HealthierUS.gov, for suggestions on achieving a healthier lifestyle.

The Obesity Prevention campaign, originally launched in March 2004, targets adults and focuses on the power of small steps. The bilingual campaign expanded its target to children in 2005 and currently aims to encourage all children and families to lead healthy lives.

Your continued support of this critical campaign can help Hispanic Americans recognize the importance of taking small steps to get healthy!

1 in 150 Children Diagnosed with Autism

Autism is the fastest-growing developmental disorder in the United States, with lifelong consequences for individuals, families and society. This complex brain disorder inhibits a person’s ability to communicate, respond to surroundings and form relationships with others. The statistics are alarming: fourteen years ago only 1 in 10,000 children was diagnosed with autism; today that rate has soared to a staggering 1 in 150.

The PSAs compare the odds of parents’ daily concerns regarding their children to the odds of their children being diagnosed with Autism.

Thanks in part to the incredible support of Hispanic media – the campaign ranked fourth in most support garnered from Spanish-language broadcast TV among all Ad Council campaigns in 2006 – more than 1.5 million visitors logged on to www.autismspeaks.org to learn more about autism within the first six months following the campaign launch in April of last year.

Following on the success of the initial round of the Autism Awareness campaign last April, Autism Speaks and the Ad Council launched a second phase of the campaign, which includes Spanish-language television and radio advertising and was created pro bono by BBDO New York. The new PSAs aim to motivate parents and caregivers of children aged 6 and younger to learn the signs of autism and to visit the website to find out more information about early intervention.

Your support of this campaign will ensure that more Hispanic parents learn to recognize the signs of autism.

Helping to Prevent Online Sexual Exploitation of Teen Girls

The prevalence of online sexual exploitation of children, particularly teenage girls, is overwhelming, yet it’s largely unrecognized and underreported. According to a recent study conducted by University of New Hampshire researchers for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), of the approximately one in seven youth who have received a sexual solicitation over the Internet, 70 percent were girls. Popular social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Sconex allow teens to post and share personal information, pictures and videos, potentially making them even more vulnerable to online predators.

In an effort to help protect our nation’s children from the possible risks they may face online, the Ad Council, in its continuing partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice and NCMEC, has launched a new series of PSAs designed to help educate teenage girls about the potential dangers of posting and sharing personal information online.

The new Spanish-language TV and radio PSAs seek to alert teens to the fact that the Internet is not a “private” place, but rather a public place in which social networking profiles and blogs potentially release information that can be viewed by anyone, including sexual predators. All the PSAs direct teens to www.cybertipline.com to report online solicitations and to learn more about how they can stay safer online.

Since launching in 2004, the PSAs have garnered more than $150 million in donated media support, and NCMEC has seen an increase in reports of online enticement of children for sexual acts.

PSAs to Encourage Emergency Preparedness Among Hispanics

Earlier this year, the Ad Council, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, unveiled new Spanish-language public service advertisements designed to reach Hispanics as part of the Listo campaign. The Listo campaign, originally launched in 2003, is an extension of the hugely successful Ready campaign and is designed to empower Hispanics and educate them about preparing for and responding to all types of emergencies, including natural disasters and potential terrorist attacks.

The campaign, which includes television, radio, print and outdoor PSAs created by Elevación in Washington, D.C., highlights the importance of emergency preparedness through the use of cultural metaphors that convey the need to have an emergency plan. One spot, entitled “Corner of the Ring,” relates emergency preparedness to a boxer facing his opponent—a hurricane. The other spot, entitled “Tia Contingencia,” features a couple discussing an aunt’s habitual practice of arriving unexpectedly.

All the PSAs direct audiences to visit www.listo.gov, which has recently been updated to include new emergency preparedness resources, including special preparedness information for senior citizens and individuals with disabilities, and an online demonstration video. Spanish-speaking Americans can also receive free Listo materials by calling 1-888-SE-LISTO.

Please help us extend this important message to the Hispanic community, especially during the month of September, which has been named National Preparedness Month. This month’s goal is to increase public awareness of the importance of emergency preparedness and to urge all Americans to take steps to get prepared.

Wildfire Prevention Message Relevant for All Americans

We have all witnessed the devastation caused by wildfires throughout the nation in the past months. Wildfires are among the most destructive natural forces known to humankind. Although wildfires are sometimes caused by lightning, nine out of ten are caused by humans. If you’re like most people, you associate wildfires with the summer months. Due to increasingly warmer temperatures and dry conditions nationwide, the wildfire season is year round in some regions of the country.

Although wildfires can start anywhere and at any time if the conditions are ripe, the fire season typically starts in the Southeast in January and expands to the entire Eastern region and Texas during March, then returns to these areas from October to December. In the Western region, the season starts in June and continues through September and October.