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A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Only you can prevent forest fires. Take a bite out of crime. What do these slogans have in common? They are all public service announcements, or PSAs, and they are ingrained in our memories thanks to the Ad Council.
What is the Ad Council?
The Ad Council was formed in 1942 when a group of Madison Avenue advertising execs wanted to contribute to the war effort without actually leaving their day jobs. The result was a series of ads encouraging Americans to buy war bonds. They were so successful that President Roosevelt encouraged the organization to continue the program after the war had ended.
How does it work? A non-profit or government organization (such as the Boys Clubs of America or the Department of Homeland Security) approaches the Ad Council with a cause that needs support. The Council farms out the job to an advertising agency, which provides its creative and production work free of charge. The people that appear in PSA spots, whether celebrities or civilians, get no pay and no residuals for their work. The Council then approaches different media outlets – radio, TV and even the Internet – to get the ads placed (again, free of charge). The Ad Council requires that PSAs promote positive social change in such areas as the quality of life for children, preventative health, education, community well being, and environmental preservation.
Smokey Bear
In 1944 the Ad Council used a young bear cub who’d been rescued from a New Mexico wildfire as an icon to emphasize the dangers of playing with matches and leaving campfires smoldering. Originally called “Hot Foot Teddy,” Smokey Bear became so popular that an estimated 95% of the U.S. population can finish the statement “Remember: Only You Can Prevent…” without prompting. The forest fire prevention campaign was so successful that many national parks now must employ the use of “prescribed burnings” – carefully controlled fires of moderate intensity – in an effort to help restore Nature’s balance.
The United Negro College Fund
The United Negro College Fund was established in 1944 as a philanthropic fund to not only provide scholarships to students but also to help pay the operating costs of historically black universities. The UNCF received a major boost in fundraising when the Ad Council launched an aggressive PSA campaign in 1968 with the help of Young & Rubicam, who came up with the slogan “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Thanks to the power of advertising, the amount of annual donations climbed into the millions beginning in the early 1970s.
Keep America Beautiful
The non-profit organization known as Keep America Beautiful was founded in 1953, but chances are the majority of Americans were unaware of the group’s existence until the first PSA starring the “Crying Indian” aired in 1971. Iron Eyes Cody provided a powerful visual slap upside the head as an illustration of how throwing your Big Mac wrappers out of the car window was destroying the landscape. The fact that Iron Eyes Cody was actually an Italian-American gent named Espera de Corti shouldn’t detract from the overall message. Litter is still ugly enough to make a grown man cry.
Don’t Smoke
Back in 1967, the dangers of cigarette smoking were well known, but tobacco companies were still allowed to advertise on television. As a counterpoint to those ads which showed young, successful, average suburban adults happily puffing away, this PSA was meant to be a wake-up call and reminder of how children tend to imitate their parental role models.
Don’t Do Drugs, Either
In the same vein as the “Like Father, Like Son” anti-smoking campaign, this 1987 PSA was aimed at the Baby Boomers who’d grown up smoking marijuana as casually as their parents had done with cigarettes. But the children of the Boomers were experimenting with drugs that were unheard of in the late 60s/early 70s, and this commercial was trying to nudge parents into realizing that “Guess what? Your kids know what pot smells like, so even if you only surreptitiously smoke it after they’ve gone to bed, they know what you’ve been up to, and the logic follows that if it’s OK that Mom and Dad do drugs….”
Buckle Up
The U.S. hasn’t cornered the market on PSAs. In fact, some of the ads broadcast overseas are far more graphic. Take, for example, this UK ad promoting the use of seat belts by passengers sitting in the back seat. (Warning for the squeamish: It’s quite graphic — watch at your own risk.)
Don’t Screw Around in the Workplace
Canada’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (similar to the U.S.’s OSHA) ran a very graphic series of PSAs demonstrating workplace accidents happening when least expected and under the most mundane of circumstances. (Again, if you’re squeamish, this has a squicky ending.)
Don’t Touch Blasting Caps
When I was a kid, Saturday morning cartoons were always punctuated with PSA warnings about the danger of blasting caps. Was there some sort of huge construction boom in the 1960s that made blasting caps such a pervasive threat? I don’t know, but I do know that during my fetal months I fervently searched local vacant fields for tiny devices as shown on the commercials, but never found a single blasting cap.
Which PSAs have stuck with you throughout the years? Woodsy Owl? This is your brain on drugs? Or maybe a lesser-known ad (“What is pwedudice?”). Chime in with the public service announcements that have haunted you since childhood.
Comments (48)
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God, that takes me back to the 60’s, Willie Mays and the blasting caps warning. I looked every where and never did find anything as well…..
posted by Bobsen on 4-30-2009 at 2:34 pm
By far the most memorable PSAs for me growing up were the short bits added on to the end of G.I. Joe cartoons. A group of kids would be about to play with fireworks or touch a downed powerline or bully a classmate until Duke or Snake Eyes or Lady Jaye would show up and teach them a valuable lesson about citizenship or smoke detectors. “…and knowing is half the battle!”
posted by Ed on 4-30-2009 at 2:37 pm
Not sure if they count as PSAs or just as good ol’ Canadian Content (both seem to get more than adequate time on tv up here!!) but I love the Hinterland Who’s Who nature spots about endangered species. The opening music is an instantly recognizable flute piece and the updated versions they now run added a back beat to it. Weird.
The WSIB ones (like the one you showed above)are pretty powerful too and there was a whole ad campaign recently with subway ads that I couldn’t help staring at in morbid curiousity on my way to/from work…
posted by ac on 4-30-2009 at 2:39 pm
Along with G.I. Joe I also remember the one with all the kids voice’s saying things like “I wanna be a doctor” “I wanna be president” and “I wanna be an astronaut.” Then it cuts to a someone panhandling on the strets with an adult voiceover “No one says they want to be a junkie when they grow up.” So naturually my friends and I started claiming we did.
posted by Greg on 4-30-2009 at 2:47 pm
I remember this drug free commercial with bugs playing basketball.
Just hanging in the court playin’ b-ball
When these drugged up bugs came out from behind the wall.
They said, “You’re no good! We’re the best in this neighborhood!”
With no delay, the game got underway
but the drugged up bugs were too high to play!
They couldn’t even hold the ball, Couldn’t pass, couldn’t shoot, couldn’t score at all
(buzz)
That’s the buzzer, time to quit, home bees 100, drug bugs zip!
The lesson here is so plain to see, Drug Free Is The Way To Be!
Ahh… memories.
posted by El Jefe on 4-30-2009 at 3:05 pm
I don’t know if it was a PSA so much as just a commercial (and it may have only aired in Canada) but there used to be a commercial about what caused acne and how to treat it. Say the phrase “Some people say I eat too many chocolate bars…” to anyone my age and they’ll definitely chime in.
As well, those WSIB commercials really are quite graphic and pretty powerful. When they first started airing my roommates and I couldn’t quite believe what we were seeing. Very effective.
posted by Jenny on 4-30-2009 at 3:15 pm
I remember the GI joe thing. But along with that there was also Inspector Gadget, who, at the end of each episode would always do something stupid and almost die until penny or the dog saved him ( just like the rest of the show actually). The one i remember best is the one that taught you not to ride a bike while wearing a cape. To this day I don’t know why anyone would do that.
I also loved the “winners don’t do drugs” that would flash on arcade games when you were done playing.
Oh and also, when I was an older adolescent they had those really lame ones about how you didn’t need to smoke to be cool. The kids who refused to smoke need to smoke were so smug and righteous and annoying that those PSA’s made me think that smoking looked awesome and totally badass.
posted by Marc on 4-30-2009 at 3:45 pm
Growing up in Arizona we had the usual School House Rocks come on between Saturday Morning cartoons but then we had our own “local” ones thrown in the mix as well:
Like the Hepatitis song -
“Wash your hands after going to the bathroom, after changing baby too, ’cause we don’t want to catch hepatitis and we don’t want hepatitis to catch you , who? YOU!
and then the warning about Valley Fever – which I only remember this ominous voice saying “Distant, dry, dusty” (echo dusty) over the image of
a dust storm blowing through a neighborhood or someone’s backyard.
posted by Lisa on 4-30-2009 at 4:01 pm
The anti-drug commercials of the 60s were little gems of terror. They also played them during the afternoon cartoon shows, which was nice for a nine-year-old kid trying to unwind after a hard day at grammar school.
posted by Joe Maz on 4-30-2009 at 4:02 pm
I always like the “This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs.” with the fried egg. mmm…fried eggs!
posted by Ann on 4-30-2009 at 4:11 pm
I’m a little too young to remember the original airing of those ads. But the new ones are pretty hard hitting too. Our high school news used to air them during their broadcasts and I still vividly remember two. One was the hunger awareness, where the mother has to make ketchup into soup. Another, was the one where the girl just goes insane tweezing her eyebrows while high. Four years later, and I’m still hesitant when I pick up tweezers or waste food.
posted by N on 4-30-2009 at 4:17 pm
Oh yeah, the one I remember most vividly was the one where the hipster says “The last time I took acid I drew a self-portrait,” and then holds up a scribbled pen drawing of a disfigured face in agony.
None of those PSAs slowed me down a bit when the girl in my HS theater club offered to share a joint with me, by the way. Maybe the Ad Council would’ve done better with less horror, and more girls in Danskins.
posted by Joe Maz on 4-30-2009 at 4:17 pm
the ones i remember best are louie the lightning bug. there were a few ads, all about different dangers involved with electricity. they might’ve just been a thing in the south.. but i can still sing those songs.
“you’ve gotta play it safe around electricity…”
posted by tami on 4-30-2009 at 4:42 pm
How about those WICKED and psychedelic Mr. Yuck anti-poison commercials back in the 70s??!!
With swirly rainbows in the background and an Alice Cooper-like kinda voice singing, “Mr. Yuck is GREEEEEEEnnnnnn. Mr. Yuck is MEEEEAAAAANNNN.”
Okay, so my family didnt use the stickers on any of our hazardous products, but neither I, not any of my siblings ended up up in the ER because we thought antifreeze was really green Kool-aid. So, I suppose that those night terrors the commercials gave me were worth it in the end!
posted by Marty on 4-30-2009 at 4:50 pm
@Lisa – I was going to post the Hepatitis PSA myself. I grew in Oregon, and they would always play it during Saturday morning cartoons. Too funny to see that someone else also thought it was worth a mention. I still hum that song to myself!
posted by April on 4-30-2009 at 4:53 pm
“I learned it from you, dad!”
(my work blocks the videos, so I’m hoping that the “Don’t do drugs, either” video isn’t the one I just mentioned; if so, I apologize for working for fascists)
posted by anotherfascist on 4-30-2009 at 5:14 pm
anotherfascist – yeah, that’s the same video.
“. . . from you dad . . . I learned it from watching YOU!
posted by St. James on 4-30-2009 at 5:44 pm
Excellent article!
posted by Sarah in CA on 4-30-2009 at 5:53 pm
Good GOD!!! You weren’t kidding about those graphic commercials
posted by Jonny on 4-30-2009 at 7:31 pm
@tami The Louie the Lightning bug ads were not just in the south. I’m from Canada and totally remember those.
My favourite PSA was Astar the Robot “I can put my arm back on. You can’t! So play safe!” It ran for years and then was suddenly replaced with terrible CG version a few years ago. I couldn’t understand the reason for the switch.
The anti smoking PSA that featured a group of young athletes diving into a large pool of boiling chemicals always creeped me out.
While not really PSAs the HinterLand Who’s Who and the Heritage Minutes have stuck in my mind since I was a kid.
posted by Erin on 4-30-2009 at 7:47 pm
One of the most infectious Ad Council PSAs, was “VD is for Everybody”
posted by Skip Elsheimer on 4-30-2009 at 10:33 pm
I actually had a friend who blew off three fingers with blasting caps back in the early 70’s.
posted by Paul on 5-1-2009 at 1:09 am
Growing up in Phoenix, I saw one PSA about three billion times on TV. It was about some guy in his car going up some hill. Directly in front of him was a slow-moving truck-and-trailer. The people behind the car kept honking to get him to pass the truck. Finally he decided to pull out to the left and pass the truck. Of course, before he can pass the truck, his car crashes into some other car coming in the opposite direction. We don’t see the crash, but we hear the screeching brakes, a loud scream, and the crash. Moral: “Don’t pass slow-moving trucks going slowly up some hill.” Maybe I saw that FOUR billion times.
posted by SafeDriver on 5-1-2009 at 1:36 am
Yeah, what was all the hullabaloo about blasting caps? I remember having our Officer Friendly visit when I was in kindergarten or nursery school (around 1975), and our officer spoke extensively about the dangers of blasting caps, of which I had never even heard, nor would I ever run into over the course of my entire life.
posted by Jonathan on 5-1-2009 at 3:29 am
The latest PSA’s in the UK involve dead kids in the road and a dead kid following a guy around. Both have to do with hitting the kids with a car. Pretty graphic.
My favorite PSA from growing up was the one with Rachel Leigh Cook destroying a kitchen. Any Questions?
posted by Tricia on 5-1-2009 at 6:22 am
I always had the “The More You Know…” with the rainbow shooting star ingrained in my head.
posted by Andy on 5-1-2009 at 7:57 am
I liked Family Guy’s take on the “The More You Know…” ads. I’m sure it’s on Youtube if you look for it. It’s horribly inappropriate for anyone, but so is Family Guy.
Also, what about the “This is your brain on Drugs” campaign, where they smash an egg with a pan?
posted by Nick on 5-1-2009 at 8:32 am
The advertisement that my name links to plays every time we go to the cinema in the UK and it always makes me feel like I am going to be sick. As a matter of fact, although a group of friends go every week, I have made excuses to not go for the past month.
It’s icky.
posted by missjoules on 5-1-2009 at 9:05 am
The smoking ad from the 60s totally brought back memories; it ran well into the 70s. I remember it most because the kid in it looked exactly like my little brother, friends and family would always call up after it aired and ask whether it was him or not.
posted by Will on 5-1-2009 at 9:27 am
@Erin – Astar the Robot! I almost forgot about him!
Ever since I read this article yesterday I’ve been having flashbacks of old PSA’s…
There’s Gert and Bert of “Stay Alert Stay Safe”, that weird monster thing that sang “Don’t you put it in your mouth”, ParticipAction and Body Break with Hal Johnston and Joanne McCloud…all so great!
posted by Jenny on 5-1-2009 at 9:27 am
The one that sticks in my head is “don’t drown your food” I think it stayed with me because I always thought it was a strange thing to warn about. And yet, I am strongly anti-food drowning.
posted by Leah on 5-1-2009 at 10:28 am
I remember the one where they compared the effects of taking drugs to drowning. There was a young girl just sitting in her bedroom and all of a sudden it filled with water. The ending shot was this drowned young girl floating in her bedroom. Always creeped me out.
posted by Hastings on 5-1-2009 at 10:40 am
The one with Bugs Bunny telling kids to make sure pot handles are turned in stuck with me. But my favorite, probably because it was the most unexpected, I only saw once, late at night. It was a montage of clips from the civil rights movement set to “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now” by McFadden and Whitehead, and this went on for the entire commercial, until the very end when it went black, and they announced that drunk driving kills more minorities than white people. Totally random, I did not see it coming. Plus, I really like the song.
posted by Jim on 5-1-2009 at 11:12 am
The Flintstones Kids cartoon about wearing your seatbelt.
…for safety’s sake, wear seat belts!
I’ll properly weat seatbelts and heed the words of the law!”
I loved little Fred and Barney!
posted by Woohoo on 5-1-2009 at 11:31 am
The one I remember most was warning you not to stick your hand down the garbage disposal. This kid’s mom had done that and now she just had a stump, anyone else remember that one?
posted by kkg on 5-1-2009 at 2:48 pm
my brother had that poster: This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. This your brain with a side of bacon.
I liked that cardinal that sang about trees being terrific. Sometimes Eddie Albert was on the commercials too.
posted by vegebrarian on 5-1-2009 at 2:55 pm
That Canadian one with the chef… JEEZ! that was one of the most hardcore PSA/Advertisements i have ever seen, i had to turn it off… horrific! wow
posted by OMFG on 5-1-2009 at 3:48 pm
Holy cats, British PSAs will completely scar you for life. “Apache”? “Dark Water”? Holy. Cats.
I’m an American, but I’ve seen enough of those buggers to know better than to do a lot of foolish but seemingly convenient things now!
Although, I have to admit, the early 80s one I saw with Timothy Spall as a pervy child molester is unintentionally hilarious.
posted by Brooklynperson on 5-1-2009 at 3:50 pm
I just remember the one where they talked about a girl, and when she was 5 she did this cool thing, and 12 she did this, and 15 did that and the kicker was “but her parents never talked to her about drugs” as an ambulance drove away.
posted by Merinda on 5-1-2009 at 5:51 pm
This isn’t really a PSA, but it was a commercial.
When I was 5, my parents took me and my sister to the movies a lot, and they had this commercial, telling everyone not to smoke, talk or be rowdy in theaters. They showed Barbie dolls smoking, talking, and being rowdy, and the barbies got sucked up by vacuums. It scared the crap out of poor little me. I thought if I so much as whispered during the movie, I’d get sucked up and never be seen again.
I still can’t talk, smoke, or be rowdy in theaters without checking for a vacuum.
posted by Maggers on 5-2-2009 at 10:21 am
While it wasn’t a short PSA, there was a cartoon we were made to watch each year in our guidance counselor in-class things…I forget what they were called. Anyway, it was a lot of Warner Bros. (and other) cartoon characters trying to save a kid from marijuana. It troubled me…Bugs saying, “Is that a blunt?”
posted by Lu on 5-4-2009 at 7:04 pm
There’s one I remember from the late 60s which showed a boy throwing a rock in the air. They then cut to a little girl wearing glasses. The rock hit the glasses, and the lenses shattered and cut her up. The commercial then ended with a warning about making sure your kids’ glasses were shatterproof (no warning about being hit in the face with a rock).
I think it was a PSA- I was about 4 when I saw it, but it’s scarred me forever. I was especially scared a few years later when I needed to get glasses. I still think about it every so often.
posted by Bill on 5-6-2009 at 11:32 am
Ditto about the girl’s body floating beneath the water that filled up her bedroom. Eerie
Also creepy – the Mormon commercial about the kid who tells a lie, then all of these freaks start hounding him and singing a sinister-sounding song: “When you tell one lie, it leads to another; then you tell two lies to cover each other…”
One that used to run on Saturday mornings about how we should eat our cheese had some cartoon cowboy singing “I hanker fer a hunk of cheese!” Then he put a slice of cheese in between 2 huge round crackers and said “Look, a wagon wheel!” Yeeeee-haw!
posted by Brian on 5-7-2009 at 1:38 pm
I think this one was local (North Carolina), but does anyone remember Mr. Did? He was an anti-litter superhero in green sweats if I remember correctly…
posted by analyst on 5-11-2009 at 1:20 pm
Um…Canadian PSA’s scare me. Alot. Has that ever happened? Jeez….
posted by kelleylogan on 5-17-2009 at 11:52 pm
Hello,
My name is Leigha Hoffner and I am the mother of a 3 year old son named Jamil. My son has a deadly rare genetic disease called Bassen Kornzweig Syndrome. This disease is costing my son his eye sight, he cannot speak, and is severely delayed. This disease has no cure and the only treatment available only helps prolong blindness. My son’s life expectancy is 5 years old. Because of what he and my family have been through I have started a foundation called A Cure for Bassen Kornzweig Foundation. However, right now my son’s doctor is unable to treat him anymore because she does not know what else to do with him. My son according to experts is the only one in this state that has this disease and from the 17 different doctors that we have been to not a single one of them have heard of this nor know how to treat him. I am a mother and I do not want my son to die. I have no other options. I do not know what else to do to help save my son but I will not stop in my efforts. I am asking for your help in any way that you can, from referrals to doctors, helping bring awareness of this disease to supporting the foundation, to sponsoring my son and the other little boys who have this disease so that we can find a cure.
I cannot image what life will be like without my son or how badly the world will suffer from him not being here.
Thank you and God bless you for helping.
Leigha Hoffner and Jamil
posted by leigha hoffner on 6-10-2009 at 1:23 pm
I remember hearing the “I learned it by watching you!” kid was at the time in a somewhat known band but I can’t remember what it was now. Anybody?
posted by Jeff on 6-17-2009 at 1:12 am
@John. That McFaden and Whitehead commercial creeps. Me. Out.
posted by Neisha on 8-21-2009 at 4:21 pm