You may not immediately know us by name, but you do know us. For 57 years, the Ad Council has created timely and compelling public service messages for our nation. Our slogans and characters are more than memorable—they raise awareness, inspire individuals to take action, and save lives. The following results testify to the power of the Ad Council’s messages to make lasting and positive social change:

Smokey Bear and his famous words of wisdom, "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires," are recognized by 95% of adults and 77% of children. Before the campaign began in 1944, over 32 million acres of forests were destroyed that year by fires; in the 1990s, even though 10 times as many people visited our national parks, we decreased that number to an average of only 3.7 million acres per year.

Since the Ad Council began its "Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk" campaign, 79% of Americans say they have personally stopped someone who had been drinking from getting behind the wheel of a car.

McGruff the Crime Dog, who asked you to help him "Take a Bite Out of Crime," is recognized by 98% of children as a crime prevention symbol. In the 1990s, children nationwide came to know McGruff’s nephew Scruff, who also worked to protect them against violence, drugs, and crime.

The United Negro College Fund has been reminding American’s that "A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste," since 1972. UNCF has raised over $1.4 billion, and helped send over 300,000 deserving minority students to college.

Since the crash test dummies, Vince and Larry, were introduced to the American public in 1985, safety belt usage has increased from 21% to 68%.

Our History and Mission
Since creating the category of public service advertisements (PSAs) in 1942, the Ad Council has played an increasingly critical role in our changing society. The War Advertising Council, a private, non-profit organization, was founded to rally support for World War II-related efforts. The War Ad Council produced PSA campaigns that raised $35 billion in War Bonds, encouraged the planting of 50 million Victory Gardens, reminded people that “Loose Lips Sink Ships,” and recruited 2 million women into the job force through the powerful symbol, "Rosie the Riveter." After the War, the President asked the Ad Council to continue as a peacetime public service organization to help solve the most pressing social issues of the day.

Our mission is to identify a select number of significant public issues and stimulate action on those issues through communications programs that make a measurable difference in our society. To that end, the Ad Council marshals volunteer talent from the advertising and communications industries, the facilities of the media, and the resources of the business and non-profit communities to create awareness, foster understanding, and motivate action.

Primary Activities
The Ad Council’s major activities include the production, distribution, promotion and evaluation of public service communications programs. Each year the Ad Council conducts over 40 campaigns in the following issue areas: improving the quality of life for children, education, preventive health, community well-being, environmental preservation, and strengthening families.

The Ad Council receives several hundred requests for campaign support from non-profit organizations and government agencies each year. For a campaign to be selected, it must be non-commercial, non-denominational, and non-political. Additionally, the issue must be of significant importance, national in scope and applicable to all Americans.

Once a campaign is accepted, the Ad Council’s professional staff works together with hundreds of volunteers to bring its message to the public. The nation’s top advertising agencies do the creative work pro bono. Leading corporate marketing executives lend their time and expertise. And the media generously donate millions of dollars worth of time and space for our messages.

Healthier Kids, Healthier Families
As the nation’s largest producer of PSAs, the Ad Council has created more than 1,000 public service campaigns on critical issues such as crime prevention, early cancer detection, and drug abuse, and brought issues such as child abuse, understanding mental illness, and AIDS to national attention. In 1995, to maximize the impact of all of our campaigns, the Ad Council’s Board of Directors voted unanimously to adopt a new, long-term initiative to help Americans who can’t speak for themselves—our children. Our objective, consistent with our history and mission, is to raise awareness and stimulate individuals to take positive action, so that our nation’s children will have a better chance of achieving their full potential.

Healthier Communities
In addition to our children’s initiative, we are continuing our longstanding community improvement campaigns, which in effect are helping make this world a better place in which to raise our children. By definition, the Ad Council is a unique “national” organization. The Ad Council’s mission states that our messages must be “of significant importance, national in scope, and applicable to all Americans,” thus reaching individuals in local communities. By emphasizing, for example, the need for higher academic standards in schools, stopping drunk drivers from driving, or encouraging people to recycle, the Ad Council’s messages make an impact on all communities in a variety of ways.

Research
A recent major accomplishment was the integration of research and evaluation into the Ad Council’s ongoing activities. In June 1997, in conjunction with the Public Agenda Foundation and Ronald McDonald House Charities, we released a first-year report — Kids These Days: What Americans Really Think About The Next Generation — on the five-year segmentation and tracking study we have launched as part of our kids program. The study, which will track changes in attitudes toward kids and parents, will not only help guide our PSAs, but will be an invaluable tool for everyone involved in helping children in this country. Our first tracking report was released in May 1999.

Beyond the PSA: New Alliances and Communications Tools
In this ever-changing environment of public service, the Ad Council has begun to pursue new alliances and new communications tools that move beyond standard public service advertising and enable our messages to reach broader audiences. The Ad Council has embarked on some major projects including, but not limited to, exclusive media partnerships with radio and television networks, affiliates, and cable channels; integrating research and evaluation into all our work; outreach to local media to increase placement of our ads that are relevant to their communities; localizing and customizing advertisements; targeting select campaigns to Hispanic and Asian communities; long-format programming, such as the half-hour animated kids’ special teaching energy efficiency, “Watts On Your Mind”; four annual advertorials in Reader’s Digest magazine; a new concept in communicating through newspapers — the newsgraph; a four-part prime time series on the A&E Network entitled “Biography Presents: Uncommon Americans”, and a cover story in PARADE Magazine. Former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, Chairman of our Advisory Committee on Public Issues, was involved with the latter two and is also promoting the work of the Ad Council during his many speaking engagements and appearances.

We have also developed a Web site, www.adcouncil.org, which features all of our campaigns, links to our sponsor organizations, research and media highlights, donor information, and several outlets for people to contact us with questions or comments. In collaboration with the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), our ad banners are also appearing on donated space throughout the Internet, helping to spread our public service messages throughout cyberspace. A new partnership with FasTV.com also allows public Internet access to historical and current Ad Council PSAs. Over the course of the coming year, we will continue to expand on these non-traditional tools of public service advertising.

How Our Programs Are Funded
The Ad Council is a highly effective organization largely because of our unique array of public support. General operating contributions from over 375 individuals, corporations, foundations, and constituent organizations are the Ad Council’s principal source of funding, accounting for over 70% of our income. Last year, the Ad Council turned $3.2 million in charitable contributions into over ONE BILLION DOLLARS in donated media time and space for issues such as the importance of learning during the ages zero to three, domestic violence and crime prevention, raising academic standards in America, anti-discrimination, and mentoring and after-school programs, to name just a few.