The Advertising Council, commonly known as Ad Council, is an American nonprofit organization that produces, distributes, and promotes public service announcements or PSAs on behalf of various sponsors, including nonprofit organizations, non-governmental organizations and agencies of the United States government. The Ad Council partners with advertising agencies that work pro bono to create the public service advertisements on behalf of their campaigns. The organization accepts requests from sponsor institutions for advertising campaigns that focus on particular social issues. To qualify, an issue must be non-denominational, non-partisan (though not necessarily unbiased), have national relevance and be an issue for which communications can make a measurable difference. The Ad Council distributes the advertisements to a network of 33,000 media outlets—including broadcast, print, outdoor (e.g., billboards, bus stops), and Internet—which run the ads in donated time and space. Media outlets donate approximately $1.8 billion to Ad Council campaigns annually. If paid for, this amount would make the Ad Council one of the largest advertisers in the country. Beyond advertisements across broadcast, print, and digital, campaign efforts often include virtual panels, coalition building, and information sharing. In 2020, the Ad Council coordinated with partners across government, media, tech, and health to disseminate messaging about social distancing, wearing masks, and staying home when possible to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. In February 2021, the Ad Council announced the COVID-19 Vaccine Education initiative in partnership with COVID Collaborative and more than 300 partners.

History

The organization was conceived in 1941, and it was incorporated as The Advertising Council, Inc., on February 26, 1942. On June 25, 1943, it was renamed The War Advertising Council, Inc. for the purpose of mobilizing the advertising industry in support of the war effort for the ongoing Second World War. Early campaigns encouraged enlistment to the military, the purchase of war bonds, and conservation of war materials. Before the conclusion of World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested that the Ad Council continue its work during peacetime. On February 5, 1946, The War Advertising Council officially changed its name back to The Advertising Council, Inc., and shifted its focus to issues such as atomic weapons, world trade and religious tolerance. In 1945, the Ad Council began working with the National Safety Council. U.S. presidents subsequent to Roosevelt have also supported the Ad Council's work. In the 1950s, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and General Dwight D. Eisenhower appeared in the Ad Council's anti-communism ads. In the 1980s First Lady Nancy Reagan collaborated with the Ad Council on the “Just Say No” anti-drug campaign. On March 11, 2021, as part of its COVID-19 Vaccine Education Initiative, the Ad Council released a PSA featuring former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter along with former First Ladies Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Rosalynn Carter. On March 15, the White House's official Twitter account shared the PSA with the message “Four presidents. Two political parties. One clear message: Get vaccinated when it’s available to you.” Their partners on the initiative, COVID Collaborative, is a national assembly chaired by former Governor and U.S. Senator Dirk Kempthorne (R-ID) and former Governor Deval Patrick (D-MA). The Ad Council's COVID-19 vaccine promotion efforts were further supported by a $500,000 grant in the first quarter of 2021 from Pfizer for a "COVID-19 Crisis Response & Recovery Effort." The Ad Council's first president, Theodore Repplier, assumed leadership of the organization in 1947. Robert Keim succeeded Repplier as Ad Council president from 1966 to 1987, Ruth Wooden succeeded Keim from 1987 to 1999, and Peggy Conlon succeeded Wooden from 1999 to 2014, when the current president, Lisa Sherman, began her tenure. Since 1986, the Ad Council's archive has been housed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Famous campaigns

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Organizations with campaigns done by the Ad Council

• AARP • Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality • American Cancer Society • American Foundation for AIDS Research • American Heart Association • American Red Cross • AmeriCorps VISTA • Arthritis Foundation • Autism Speaks • Afterschool Alliance • Bedsider • Big Brothers Big Sisters of America • Dollar General Literacy Foundation • Family Violence Prevention Fund • Give Kids The World Village • The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation • Keep America Beautiful • Maternal & Child Health Bureau • National AIDS Network • National Crime Prevention Council • National Fatherhood Initiative • National Center for Family Literacy • National Urban Coalition • Opportunity@Work • Peace Corps • Save the Children • United Nations • United Negro College Fund • United States Army • United States Department of Agriculture • United States Department of Health and Human Services • United States Department of Justice • United States Department of Transportation • United States Forest Service • United States Olympic Committee • USA Freedom Corps • WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children)

Partnerships with film production companies

Several recent Ad Council PSA campaigns have involved partnerships with film production companies, including Warner Bros., Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Disney. Examples include a partnership with Warner Bros. featuring characters from Where the Wild Things Are in PSAs to counteract childhood obesity, PSAs for child passenger safety featuring clips from Warner Bros. The Wizard of Oz, a partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment's The Smurfs 2 to encourage children to explore nature.

Criticism

Due to the Ad Council's historically close collaboration with the President of the United States and the federal government, it has been labeled by historian Robert Griffith as "little more than a domestic propaganda arm of the federal government." Environmental activist Mike Ewall has criticized the Ad Council for what he believes is distracting the public by focusing on individual lifestyle changes, rather than on the perceived need to fix social problems by changing institutions, such as the Ad Council's many corporate sponsors, or the government and military, whose campaigns the Ad Council has also promoted.

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