Outdoor Non Profit Advertising
Billboard Industry Responds to Recession with Public Service Ads
May 13, 2009 Carroll Trosclair
Early in 2009, the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) urged its member companies to participate in a public service campaign to restore confidence in the economy. OAAA said "Recession 101 is a light-hearted and succinct reminder to everyone that the nation will get through these troubled times."
The program consisted of a series of clever "Recession 101" quotes written on what appears to be a spiral school notebook. Samples:
- Bill Gates started Microsoft in a recession
- Interesting fact about recessions: They end.
- Stop obsessing about the economy. You’re scaring the children.
- Don’t switch to cheaper scotch. Drink slower.
Three Other Marking Purposes
OAAA said the campaign was the idea of an anonymous donor who wanted "to remind Americans of those things that make this country great." The campaign served at least three other marketing purposes:
- It made friends for the industry in the business community, which was highly concerned with the pessimism accompanying the recession.
- It filled some boards which might have otherwise been empty, something the industry never wants to see.
- It helped keep consumer attention on the billboards.
OAAA said the Recession 101 messages were carried on billboards, street furniture and transit signs.
Local Public Service Announcements
Meanwhile billboard companies were filling many boards with a variety of local public service announcements and with ads from non profit organizations. In North Carolina, three agencies sponsored a teen-age art contest to design billboards urging kids to reject drugs and alcohol. In Michigan, the Kalamazoo County Substance Abuse Task Force launched a 12-week "Smart Summer 2009" billboard campaign to help parents and kids avoid substance abuse.
Clear Channel Outdoor Pictures Most Wanted
One OAAA member, Clear Channel Outdoor, donates billboard space across the nation to show pictures of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most wanted criminals. An armored car robber, who had been sought for a year and a half, was arrested shortly after a citizen saw his picture on a Clear Channel digital billboard in Dallas and called the FBI.
Clear Channel also donated 17 billboards in Albuquerque to show pictures of seven girls found buried on the West Mesa in New Mexico. Police hope that the billboards will help find the person or persons who murdered the girls. The father of one of the victims said he also hoped the billboard pictures "will bring closure to it all."
The OAAA produces public service billboards on a year-round basis by partnering with several national organizations, including the American Red Cross, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, The Advertising Council and the Foundation for a Better Life (for the Pass It On campaign).
Ad Council Partnership
OAAA partners with the Advertising Council to produce billboard campaigns for fatherhood, financial literacy (Feed the Pig), foreclosure prevention, forest fire prevention (Smokey the Bear), men’s preventive health, stroke and lupus awareness, minority education, veterans support, and predatory lending education.
The public service programs not only serve the nation, but they also help the billboard companies to keep their boards filled during slow marketing periods.
References:
KDAF TV.Com, Dallas, TX, 5.11.2009
Eric Kahnert, KOB-TV, and Joshua Panas, KOB.com, Albuquerque, 5.6.2009
Recession 101 Billboard
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