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http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/08/business/media/08ADCO.html?ex=1022420044&ei=1&en=ab3aeb9cc5cd6426
How Public Service Ads Could Be Greatly Improved
May 8, 2002
By ALLISON FASS
Maybe it was more than a coincidence that public service
advertising was the one category in which the American
Association of Advertising Agencies did not present an
O'Toole Award for creativity at its annual conference last
month.
Public service advertising, at least in print form, is not
connecting effectively with consumers, and there are ways
it could be better, according to a new report by Andy
Goodman, an independent communications consultant who
focuses on public-interest groups and foundations.
The report, "Why Bad Ads Happen to Good Causes and How to
Ensure They Won't Happen to Yours," begins with a study of
195 public-interest print ads and is followed by seven
guidelines for creating more effective ones. The Starch
division of RoperASW, part of the NOP World Company,
conducted the study and provided data for the guidelines.
"Those of us who feel deeply about causes recognize that
there's a huge opportunity for them to do better
advertising," said Philip Sawyer, senior vice president and
director at Starch in New York, "and also recognize that
they had missed an opportunity by not creating more
powerful advertising."
The report, for nonprofit organizations as well as
executives or agencies that serve them, looks at ads
published from 1990 to 2000 in magazines like Business
Week, Glamour, Rolling Stone and Vogue. It studied ads for
several organizations, including the American Heart
Association, the National Mental Health Association, the
Partnership for a Drug-Free America and the Sierra Club.
The ads were judged according to three criteria: the
percentages of readers who remembered having seen an ad in
the selected issue, who recalled the name of the advertiser
or campaign, and who read at least half the written
material. The results were compared with those of other ads
in the same publication as well as to just the public
service ads.
"Relatively rare is the ad for a nonprofit organization
that earns high readership scores," Mr. Sawyer said in the
report, "and quite common are those that rank among the
lowest ads in a given issue of a publication we have
studied."
About two dozen ads are reproduced in the report, along
with written explanations of what is good and what is bad
about each ad. For example, an ad for Save the Children in
Westport, Conn., with a photo of a baby's feet, received
below-average scores.
"Among subjects for a photograph in an advertisement,
babies are one of the most powerful `eye magnets'
available," reads the report. "Starch data confirms this,
but the company's research also shows that the way the baby
is depicted is critically important."
Because the ad included a direct response order form, Save
the Children calculated that the ad reached 8 percent of
its goal. Amanda Akel, advertising manager at Save the
Children, who was not involved in the creation of the ad,
responded in the report: "Showing the baby's feet is not
telling much of a story, so I'm not surprised."
The ad showed that problems with public service advertising
may not lie solely with advertising.
"If you're pushing something like Coke, McDonald's or Nike,
those are products people are familiar with and may already
have good feelings about," said Mr. Goodman, who is based
in Los Angeles. "But if you want to talk about hunger,
worldwide reproductive rights, gun control, global warming,
those are things people may find confusing, upsetting,
maybe they don't really want to think about them."
The first three guidelines for more effective advertising
are: "Capture the reader's attention like a stop sign and
direct it like a road map," "Make an emotional connection
before attempting to convey information" and "Write
headlines that offer a reason to read more."
The project, including the 5,000 copies that have been
printed, was financed with $154,500 from five
organizations: the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation in New
York; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton,
N.J.; the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in Los Altos,
Calif.; the Pew Charitable Trusts in Philadelphia; and the
Surdna Foundation in New York.
A booklet and an insert intended for use on the job by
employees of nonprofit organizations were designed by Cause
Communications in Santa Monica, Calif. Organizations and
their agencies can order the report at Mr. Goodman's Web
site, www.agoodmanonline.com. Mr. Goodman has already given
away 1,000 copies.
"There's so many well-intentioned people in the
not-for-profit world that try to put together
communication," said Peggy Conlon, president and chief
executive at the Advertising Council in New York, which
coordinates about 40 public service campaigns. "The more
they can be told what works or what doesn't work, the more
effective it will be."
John Passacantando, executive director for the United
States operations of Greenpeace in Washington, who learned
about the report while attending a presentation by Mr.
Goodman, said he was ordering copies for his communications
staff.
"This won't make people great copywriters," Mr.
Passacantando added, "but it will at least give people a
lot more of the right questions to ask."
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