The tradition of Public service advertising began when the first public service announcement appeared in 1948.
The first public service advertisement was published before the Second World War and appeared in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
What is a Public Service Advertisement (PSA )?
Similar to legal and public notices, these advertisements are not intended to sell products or services instead, a public service advertisement is a brief message that has the intention of educating and raising awareness. This awareness might be around educating the public about an issue or behavior, and the message is intended to motivate its audience to act and create change.
Public Service Advertisements contain information that is similar to a public notice. Why the reader should care, and what actions they can take.
What are common Topics of Public Service Advertisements?
Environmental issues
public safety
Health and Wellness issues.
How to create a Public Service Advertisement
When creating a PSA, it is important to research the topic and define your audience through market research. Defining the audience includes identifying your audiences location, gender, age, ethnicity, and even religion and lifestyle may be pertinent information.
What to include in you PSA
Because PSAs are intended to cause a reaction most of the time, PSAs depict images that may be considered jarring.
The reason for this is that they are intended to alarm the reader enough so that they understand the importance of their actions. Or, in other cases, the consequences of their inaction.
How is the effectiveness of a Public Service Advertisement determined?
The effectiveness of the Public Service announcement is determined by the level of impact that it has and the amount of action that it creates by measuring the response that the public takes. This data can be found by doing a public engagement analysis while the campaign is running and reviewing the data when it is complete.
Where are PSAs placed?
public service advertisements are placed in print, on the radio, or television and online.
How to Place a Public Service Advertisement
If you need to place a Public Service Advertisement and you are unsure of what steps you need to take, it can be helpful to use an advertising agency that specializes in these types of advertisements.
We can help you in the writing and placement of these types of ads for you.
Our Public Service Announcement Experts will work with you all the way through the process. If you would like to expedite your ad placement, please have the following information ready.
Your full name, billing address, telephone number, and email address. . Have any necessary images, such as maps or logos ready. We can also help you write your ad or you can send over the exact text you would like to appear.
Lastly, if you have specific dates you would like the ad to run or if your ad needs to run multiple times. Please indicate how many times and on which dates you would like it to be published.
To place Public Service Advertising in any publication or on the radio
call us at 800.237.9851 or send an us a email to sales@russelljohns.com
For more information on placing public service advertisements of public and legal notices please see our sister agency posts