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Public service announcement
 
 
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A public service announcement (PSA) or community service announcement (CSA) is a non-commercial advertisement
Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to Purchasing or to consume more of a particular brand of Product or Service ....
 broadcast on radio or television, ostensibly for the public interest
Public interest

The public interest refers to the "common well-being" or "general welfare." The public interest is central to policy debates, politics, democracy and the nature of government itself....
. PSAs are intended to modify public attitudes by raising awareness about specific issues.

The most common topics of PSAs are health and safety. A typical PSA is part of a public awareness campaign
Advertising campaign

An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an Integrated Marketing Communications ....
 to inform or educate the public about an issue such as smoking or compulsive gambling
Addiction

The term "addiction" is used in many contexts to describe an obsession, compulsion, or excessive physical dependence or psychological dependence, such as: drug addiction, video game addiction, crime, alcoholism, compulsive overeating, problem gambling, computer addiction, pornography addiction, etc....
.

Often, a charitable organization
Charitable organization

The definition of charitable organization, and of charity, varies according to the country and in some instances the region of the country in which the charitable organization operates....
 releasing a PSA enlists the support of a celebrity; examples include Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox is a Canadian American actor. His roles include Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy trilogy ; Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties , for which he won four Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award; and Mike Flaherty from Spin City , for which he won an Emmy, three Golden Globes, and two Screen Actors Guild Awar...
's PSAs in the U.S.






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Encyclopedia


A public service announcement (PSA) or community service announcement (CSA) is a non-commercial advertisement
Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to Purchasing or to consume more of a particular brand of Product or Service ....
 broadcast on radio or television, ostensibly for the public interest
Public interest

The public interest refers to the "common well-being" or "general welfare." The public interest is central to policy debates, politics, democracy and the nature of government itself....
. PSAs are intended to modify public attitudes by raising awareness about specific issues.

The most common topics of PSAs are health and safety. A typical PSA is part of a public awareness campaign
Advertising campaign

An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an Integrated Marketing Communications ....
 to inform or educate the public about an issue such as smoking or compulsive gambling
Addiction

The term "addiction" is used in many contexts to describe an obsession, compulsion, or excessive physical dependence or psychological dependence, such as: drug addiction, video game addiction, crime, alcoholism, compulsive overeating, problem gambling, computer addiction, pornography addiction, etc....
.

Often, a charitable organization
Charitable organization

The definition of charitable organization, and of charity, varies according to the country and in some instances the region of the country in which the charitable organization operates....
 releasing a PSA enlists the support of a celebrity; examples include Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox is a Canadian American actor. His roles include Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy trilogy ; Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties , for which he won four Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award; and Mike Flaherty from Spin City , for which he won an Emmy, three Golden Globes, and two Screen Actors Guild Awar...
's PSAs in the U.S. supporting research into Parkinson's Disease
Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that often impairs the sufferer's motor skills and speech, as well as other functions....
 and Crips
Crips

The Crips are a primarily, but not exclusively, African American gang founded in Los Angeles, California in 1971 mainly by 15-year-old Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams....
 street gang leader Stanley "Tookie" Williams speaking from prison to urge youth not to join gangs.

Some religious groups produce PSAs on non-religious themes such as family values
Family values

Family values is a political and social concept used in various cultures to describe values that are believed to be traditional in that culture and in support of the idea that Nuclear family are the basic units of culture....
. Examples include the long-running "Homefront" campaign from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Seventh-day Adventist Church
Seventh-day Adventist Church

The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Christianity Religious denomination which is distinguished mainly by its observance of Saturday, the original Days of the week of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath and Seventh-day Adventism....
, and more recently the United Methodist Church
United Methodist Church

The United Methodist Church is a Christian Church that understands itself to be a part of the one Holy catholic Church of Jesus Christ and the Communion of Saints....
.

The military produces PSAs to recruit enlistees, in addition to paid advertising and sponsorship efforts.

In the U.S, the role of PSAs was affected by deregulation
Deregulation

Deregulation is a process by which governments remove, reduce or simplify restrictions on business and individuals. It is the removal of some governmental controls over a market....
 of the broadcasting industry in the 1980s. Previously, a broadcast license was assigned to a television or radio station that was expected to serve as a "public trustee" by airing PSAs (in addition to meeting other requirements).

Untited States producers distribute traditional PSAs distributed to station directors.

Examples


  • "Do you know where your children are?
    Do you know where your children are?

    Do you know where your children are? is a popular question used as a public service announcement for parents on American television throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, usually at 10:00PM or 11:00PM, depending on the television market and/or the time of the local curfew....
    "
  • "Don't Copy That Floppy
    Don't Copy That Floppy

    Don?t Copy That Floppy was an anti-copyright infringement campaign run by the Software Publishers Association beginning in 1992, and has become popular due to the advent of sites such as Google Video and YouTube....
    "
  • Heritage Minute
    Heritage Minute

    Heritage Minutes, also known officially as Historica Minutes: History by the Minute, are sixty-second short films each illustrating an important moment in History of Canada....
    s
  • Hinterland Who's Who
    Hinterland Who's Who

    Hinterland Who's Who is best known as a series of 60-second public service ads profiling Canada animals and birds, produced by Environment Canada in the 1960s and 70s....
  • "Just Say No
    Just Say No

    "Just Say No" was an advertising campaign, part of the United States "War on Drugs", prevalent during the 1980s and early 1990s, to discourage children from engaging in recreational drug use by offering various ways of saying no....
    "
  • "Crying Indian" (sponsored by Keep America Beautiful
    Keep America Beautiful

    Keep America Beautiful is an environmental organization founded in 1953. It is the largest community improvement organization in the United States, with approximately 580 affiliate organizations and more than 17,000 participating communities in their signature annual event - the Great American Cleanup....
    )
  • "Love. It Comes in All Colors
    Love. It Comes in All Colors

    Love. It Comes in All Colors was a National Urban Coalition television commercial and print advertising from 1970. It was part of a Advertising campaign to promote racial tolerance....
    "
  • "Learn Not to Burn" with Dick van Dyke
    Dick Van Dyke

    Richard Wayne ?Dick? Van Dyke is an United States actor, presenter and entertainer, with a career spanning six decades. He is best known for his starring roles in Mary Poppins , Chitty Chitty Bang Bang , The Dick Van Dyke Show and Diagnosis: Murder....
  • McGruff the Crime Dog
    McGruff the Crime Dog

    McGruff the Crime Dog is an anthropomorphic cartoon bloodhound created for the National Crime Prevention Council for use by United States police in building crime awareness among children....
    : "Take a bite out of crime!"
  • NBC's One to Grow On
    One to Grow On

    One to Grow On is an educational public service announcement that broadcast during NBC's Saturday morning line-up from 1983 to 1989 when the network ran cartoons....
  • Smokey Bear
    Smokey Bear

    Smokey Bear is a mascot of the United States Forest Service created to educate the public on the dangers of forest fires.Smokey Bear's message "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires" was created in 1944 by the Ad Council....
    : "Only you can prevent forest fires!" and "Only You Can Prevent Wildfires!"
  • NBC's The More You Know
    The More You Know

    The More You Know is a series of public service announcements broadcast on the NBC Universal family of channels in the United States and other locations....
  • This Is Your Brain on Drugs
    This is Your Brain on Drugs

    This Is Your Brain on Drugs was a large-scale United States anti-narcotics campaign by Partnership for a Drug-Free America launched in 1987, that used two televised public service announcements and a related poster campaign....
  • I learned it by watching you
    I learned it by watching you

    I learned it by watching you! was a large-scale United States anti-narcotics campaign by Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Launched in 1987, the campaign used a televised public service announcement....
  • Woodsy Owl
    Woodsy Owl

    Woodsy Owl is an owl icon for the United States Forest Service most famous for the motto "Give a hoot — don't pollute!" Woodsy's current motto is "Lend a hand — care for the land!" Woodsy's target audience are children 5 to 8 years old and was designed to be seen as a mentor to children, providing them with information and adv...
    : "Give a hoot, don't pollute!" and "Lend a hand — care for the land!"
  • Mr. Yuk
    Mr. Yuk

    Mr. Yuk is a trademarked graphic image, created by the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and widely employed in the United States in labeling of substances that are poisonous if ingested....
  • Heather Crowe
    Heather Crowe

    Heather Crowe was a former Canadian waitress who became the public face of Canada's anti-smoking campaign. She contracted lung cancer in 2002 from second-hand smoke encountered at her workplace of over forty years, and later appeared in numerous television public service announcements....
  • United Negro College Fund
    United Negro College Fund

    The United Negro College Fund is an USA philanthropic organization that fundraises college tuition money for black students and general scholarship funds for 39 private historically black colleges and universities....
    : "Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste."
  • C.O.P.S. For Kids
    C.O.P.S. For Kids

    At the end of each episode of C.O.P.S. , a special Public service announcement segment known as C.O.P.S. For Kids is shown either in animated form featuring the C.O.P.S....
  • American Indian College Fund
    American Indian College Fund

    Based in Denver, Colorado, The American Indian College Fund provides scholarships and other support for the nation's 32 tribal colleges and universities....
    : "If I Stay on the Rez"
  • United States Marine Corps
    United States Marine Corps

    The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing Military power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to rapidly deliver Marine Air-Ground Task Force....
    's Toys for Tots
    Toys for Tots

    Toys for Tots is a program run by the United States Marine Corps Reserve which donates toys to children whose parents cannot afford to buy them gifts for Christmas....
  • Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
    Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

    Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is an United States list of animated television series that was first broadcast in 1993#September, and has been running in cartoon television syndication ever since....
    : "Sonic Sez" One segment became a YTMND
    YTMND

    YTMND, an acronym and initialism for "You're The Man Now, Dog", is an virtual community centered on the creation of hosted web pages featuring an absurd wikt:juxtaposition of a single image or a simple slideshow, which may be animated and/or tiled along with optional large zooming text and a looping sound file....
     page ("That's no good!")
  • Click It or Ticket
    Click It or Ticket

    Click It or Ticket is a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration mobilization campaign aimed at increasing the use of seat belts among young people in the United States....
  • The Faster the Speed, the Bigger the Mess
    The Faster the Speed, the Bigger the Mess

    The Faster the Speed, the Bigger the Mess is a sixty second public service ad campaign by the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland's Road Safety Authority_, created by Lyle Bailie International Limited and in whole or in part supported or underwritten by Norwich Union and Hibernian Group, both part of...
  • "FUR...You Deserve It" (anti-fur trading)
  • Above the Influence
    Above the Influence

    Above the Influence is an advertising campaign in the United States by the Office of National Drug Control Policy that advocates against recreational drug use, focusing explicitly on cannabis use by American teenagers....
  • Yul Brynner
    Yul Brynner

    Yul Brynner was a Russian-born actor of stage and screen, perhaps best known for his portrayal of the Thailandese king in the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical The King and I on both stage and screen, as well as Rameses II in the 1956 Cecil B....
    : Now that I'm gone, I tell you: don't smoke (sponsored by American Cancer Society
    American Cancer Society

    The American Cancer Society is the "nationwide community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy and service."...
    ).


See also

  • Cause marketing
    Cause marketing

    Cause marketing or cause-related marketing refers to a type of marketing involving the cooperative efforts of a "for profit" business and a non-profit organization for mutual benefit....
  • Public information film
    Public information film

    Public Information Films are a series of government commissioned short films, shown during television advertising breaks in the United Kingdom....


External links