Ad Council Finding Solutions

[Music] a raging forest fire 90% of such disasters are preventable Family Violence 300,000 child abuse cases are reported annually and 60% of all married couples engage in physical violence nonviolent crime that happens once every 3 seconds in the United States problems they know at America's very fiber they Cay out for help fortunately within the American Spirit are the resources to find Solutions unique fresh Innovative ones for decades one energetic group of business people has confronted our nation's toughest problems with an ingenious and effective American solution advertising people start pollution people can stop it our country is facing serious energy problems unless we use our resources wisely we're heading for trouble I've been mosing around Washington DC here trying to find out what our hired help is doing about inflation if you don't help keep Red Cross ready who will Papa what about the fire oh forget it it'll go out by itself you wouldn't want Bears to be careless with fire in your home so don't be careless in theirs Poli score the toughest job you'll ever [Music] [Applause] [Music] love the advertising Council began in 1942 right after at the start of World War II for the first time the forces of advertising print and electronic media joined together to help the war effort the impact was overwhelming the government sold over $50 billion in bonds between 1942 in 1945 the blend of talent that gave birth to that first campaign was too powerful to disband and the war advertising Council became in peace time simply the advertising Council today the council still strikes at America's toughest and most sensitive problems one of the campaigns that I think is of very special importance is the Child Abuse Prevention campaign in many ways it it's one of the most sensitive subjects uh to deal with I think that an awful lot of people in this country don't even want to think about the fact of child abuse but it's essential that we look at it I think we have to acknowledge the fact that violence within the home is one of the most important social issues we all have to confront children who are beaten up every year but there's this Child Abuse Prevention campaign is a masterpiece of creativity and I think it's beginning to make a difference bed or sexually abused some die others keep on suffering hoping the hurt will stop abused children are helpless unless you help find out how my opinion the advertising Council represents the greatest example of volunteerism in the world just about every other country of the world the kind of advertising Council campaign that are conducted to solve social problems are paid for by the government the advertising council is actually a very complicated mechanism we have scores even hundreds of organizations that we work with and literally thousands of people all of whose efforts have to be mobilized and brought together to produce the kind of campaigns we do a campaign begins with a public service organization's request for help the council receives up to 300 requests each year a public policy committee post of Labor leaders Educators and other public Representatives helps determine priorities among the many social issues the council could address before winning support an organization faces three critical steps an initial screening by the Ad Council staff a presentation to the campaign Review Committee and endorsement by the full Council board of directors to understand this process better let's follow the progress of one campaign from its Inception the problem crime in America and now I'd like to introduce the president of the National Council on crime and delinquency Mr Milton Rector Mr Rector is an expert in the field of crime and jurist Prudence Mr Rector thank you Mr Kelly and directors of the advertising Council you have before you in our letter a summary of the proposed campaign on community crime prevention that I want to discuss with you today we approach the advertising Council to take on a campaign following a meeting with the uh director of the federal beer of Investigation I think the council saw the need for it there were just masses of crimes that were crimes of opportunity and that the citizens could do something about that so the council came back to us quite quickly asked us to present a design and on the basis of that we went to search for funding well I think uh the law enforcement assist administration of the justice department will be the most likely uh Financial supporter advertising agencies donate the creative work on ad counil campaigns the media donate the space and air time to run the campaigns a contribution worth over1 half billion dollar per year the sponsoring organization however must pay the out-of-pocket costs for items like TV production and printing of advertising materials criminal when a campaign receives approval the council assembles a task force the association of national advertisers representing the corporate advertising Community selects a volunteer coordinator this individual is usually a corporation's head of advertising marketing or communication the Ana asked Ed dly City bank's vice president director of advertising and marketing services to act as volunteer coordinator I was absolutely amazed that they wanted me to coordinate a campaign against Crime because I just couldn't see how any advertising campaign could possibly have any effect on this terrible problem the role of the voluntary coordinator is really twofold first the person has to work with the advertising agency and whatever organizations he's working with to develop a a campaign strategy and then secondly the execution of the advertising itself uh a third function is that you have to Shepherd the program through all of the various steps and facets that it has to undergo before it goes on the air next the council selects a campaign manager from its internal staff my role at the advertising council is that of a campaign manager and I manage seven of the council's 28 major campaigns I act as the liaison between the client the agency and the media coordinating all their activities the American Association of advertising agencies the major trade organization within the advertising industry selects an agency to donate the talent to create the campaign we never have a problem in finding an advertising agency for a volunteer advertising Council campaign at any one time we probably have about 25 agencies who are standing in line waiting to be assigned one of these campaigns our proposed new uh crime prevention campaign by our volunteer advertising agency danc fitzg and Sample uh we know we have Stu Upson here chairman of dancer fitzg and Sample Who on Board of course but we have U we treat our advertising Council work just like every other client BR gamble Toyota General Mills top talent top people full involvement we value them we respect them and we love the exposure well welcome to another great DFS lunch um crime campaign has been a problem as we began to really get into this campaign we really didn't know exactly what we were trying to accomplish or what the best way to get there was and so we decided to learn about crime we had to go out into the field and talk about people their concerns about it people that were victimized in some way and also talk to the professionals who are involved in dealing with crime and crime prevention so our advertising objective became to communicate that you can take action against Crime and that you should take action because change can only happen with your participation uh well you know we've looked at the problem solution and crime happens and uh then how do you stop crime and we all figured as you said when I first mentioned it that's been done and we've looked at a number of phrases and slogans trying to figure out if there's something that we could use uh that would key this whole thing come down on crime Crush crime kill crime quick uh you have to know your Market you have to know what you're trying to sell what you're trying to persuade you have to put it together in a memorable exciting way and one particularly where the media who must run it free say wow that's great advertising good for my community good for my audience I want to run it so execution is terribly important and I got thinking of Smokey the Bear I mean there was a symbol right I mean Smokey stood for no forest fires and he was an animal and I kept thinking uh maybe there's some rallying U animal that we could use uh your first thought of a rabbit jump into crime you know or a a mango you know that didn't seem quite right and then of course came the idea what is it that we all think of is a dog I mean a dog is your basic crime fighter so obviously your line came to mind take a bite out of crime and then we said what kind of a dog would we have in this so we asked the art directors to come up with the various points and they came up with some very interesting ones the first one is a a big protective dog that is over standing over the house or a neighborhood always looking down and always guarding it a very rough sketch and we thought this was pretty good but uh we said it's a little too insury it's a little like a Hartford in their deer it's nice for an insurance company but not a spokes dog for this campaign so they came up with another one their art director came up with this Sarge dog you know you'd listen to him he knows what he's talking about he's been around and it's a very nice dog and he is a kind of a fatherly figure as you're there okay now now next uh one of the art directors came in and said how about this H this dog up oh we said well uh you know it's a little cute isn't he I mean is anybody going to listen to that dog it's a little a little puppy he said ah but when a crime is committed when help is needed look what happens he becomes Wonder Dog and we said fine let's put that in that may be a possibility and then one of the art directors the other one another one said um listen U you want to T dog there you are J Edgar dog we said well yeah that's a possibility we don't uh maybe have a little problem in certain areas in Washington but it's a it's a it certainly is a candidate and then shering numers and Ray kassi came in and they said Jack think for a minute what is who knows more about crime than any anyone else really Columbo right Columbo not only Columbo but a combination of Columbo Bogart Sam Spade all of the early detectives the private eyes that we've always known about the character the dog is perfect in many ways perfect because we're dealing with a fearsome subject crime yet using a character who's animated Who's Live who can be a little bit funny who needn't who never will treat crime lightly but who can make the understanding of crime prevention much more palatable much less scary and here we have him your basic detective dog the crime dog great I think it's great thank you that's just terrific after the agency staff agreed on this creative approach they presented their idea to the council for final approval by having our dog become a become a character who says things like Excuse me while you're standing there he's five ways not the board applauded the concept and the agency staff went back to prepare the actual advertising campaign a crime you're going to see how this works let me um let me show you and take you through the first uh commercial now we open on a um we open on a door knob and the doorknob is sitting there and it's beginning to turn a very tight shot and you hear this door and you hear the as it squeakily opens and you see the door Eerie starts to open and the Shadows come through it's very dark very mysterious and suddenly wow a flashlight the beam hits you in the eye and you look at this and the beam comes towards you when you're waiting and behind the beam is our dog standing in his raincoat and he says he says you know what I think uh I think you forgot to lock your door and you see he starts to scratch his head like here it's a funny thing A lot of people do that they uh they forget it's too bad because see U all crime needs is a chance hey don't give it a chance huh lock your windows make them secure and light up your doors light goes on lights make burglar nervous come back to our dog I understand you're going to Poria next week but while you're gone have a neighbor keep an eye on your house pick up your mail you know keep the place looking lived in and use and use a timer to turn lights on and off hey fudge brownies and me on a diet oh you don't know me see it's my job to teach you to protect yourselves make it your job to learn write to box 6600 Rockville Maryland and one more thing lock your doors that's an easy way to uh take a bite out of crime in addition to television the volunteer agency prepares a coordinated campaign embracing other media as well the crime prevention Coalition and the Ad Council present the crime dog listen to this radio newspapers consumer were in Business magazines Billboards and transit for the Year 1980 the numbers are finally in and they're very impressive contributions from various media to advertising Council campaigns newspapers contributed 49,7 ads in 1980 magazines gave the advertising Council campaigns 2,800 ads the business press almost 55,000 ads targeted to their specialized audiences the outdoor business gave us 49,800 posters very impressive number the transit industry 865,000 car cards buses trains Subways stations variety of places broadcast radio gave us over 52 million commercials both in local and network spots and in television we received almost a million three in terms of both local and network spots we take all of these contributions from the various media combined it's almost $600 million in 1980 and viewed as a whole it makes the advertising Council the largest Advertiser in the United States and check your home periodically that's taking a bite at a crime start doing take a BT at a [Music] crime the advertising Council does it really find Solutions we asked four campaign sponsors the forest fire prevention program is now approaching its 40th year in cooperation with the advertising Council the US Department of agriculture's forest service and the National Association of State Foresters since 1942 the advertising council's efforts have reduced the number of fires caused by people's carelessness to half this has also reduced the number of Acres burned to half remember when you're in the forest you're among friends the estimated time and space that has been contributed by the media to this campaign is over $50 million annually the purpose of the advertising council's campaign on the American economic system is to create a better understanding of the system among the American public we decided that advertising by itself could not possibly explain this complicated subject so we determined that we would have a booklet that would be offered in the advertising which people could get simply by sending in for it and it's free every American should know what this booklet says about our economic system for your free copy since the beginning of the campaign over 14 million booklets have been put in the hands of the American people the United Negro College Fund which was formed in 1944 raises funds throughout the nation for 41 predominantly black private colleges during the 8-year period that we have been clients of the advertising Council we have raised one and a half times as much money as we raised during the entire 27-year period prior to our becoming a client if the United Negro College Fund had to pay for the free advertising that we reive through the advertising Council it would cost us $30 million a year the amount of advertising places us among the top 100 advertisers in the nation the Plantation was one of the largest cotton plantations in the country today on this very site is a United Negro College Fund member School producing graduates who become doctors lawyers and chemists and your contributions make theirs possible it took a lot to turn a cotton Plantation into a college that plants the seeds of knowledge now let's get to work give to the United Negro College Fund a mind is a terrible thing to waste in 80 million mailboxes cross the USA is a coming to help us plan the way to show us where we're going so that we can understand what's needed for the future the future of our land can we count on you you can count on me there's no question that the success that we've had with the 1980 program can be attributed in great part to the advertising program the purpose of the 1980 census advertising program was to reach out to the American people and apprise them of the importance of the census also to assure them that their information would be kept confidential and finally to ask him to take the action step which was to mail the form back without any additional followup on the census sp's part it's our estimate that the advertising campaign if we had paid for it out of government funds would have cost the taxpayers about $40 million can we count on you you can count on me and together we will see each other answer the census we're counting on you answer the we're counting on you getting Americans to respond to the census educating the public about our economic system generating support for black colleges preventing forest fires for American problems that move closer to solution thanks to the efforts of the e deposit the government's given me more free time and I give it to them most of the men and women in prison today were abused children help our colleges cope with inflation the money you give may decide whether I'm to be [Music] your some people have a deep abiding respect for the natural beauty that was once this country hat off America to the folks who make it grow hat off America say thanks to the ones who make it go working to fly Trucking Around the Clock growing on sewing in the mindes on the dock off America to the folks to make itow here's hats off to the American worker especially the millions of you who buy United States savings bonds to the payroll Savings Plan you not only help your savings grow you help your country grow too that's America here's what it's all about the folks who love America put a little back of what they take out millions of orage women and men by us bonds through the payroll plan taking stock in America makes America grow e e