How many of these phrases ring a bell? These widely recognized slogans from national public service announcement campaigns by the Ad Council have become a part of our culture.
While the above examples were all big-budget campaigns, your own organizations public service announcements (also known as PSAs) — even if theyre a small, locally-produced campaign — can be a great inexpensive way to get your message out to the public.
Public service announcements, commonly known as PSAs, are short messages aired on television, radio, online, or displayed in public spaces that aim to educate the public and raise awareness about issues that impact society. Whether warning people about a health risk, promoting a positive cause, or encouraging a certain behavior change, PSAs play a major role in public health communication, social advocacy, and civic engagement. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll dive into what defines these announcements, their history, examples of effective PSAs, and how they’re created.
Defining the Public Service Announcement
A public service announcement is a type of advertising campaign that provides information or promotes programs, services, or behaviors that benefit the general public. PSAs are designed to increase awareness, change attitudes, and motivate action in relation to social issues. They often focus on encouraging healthy behaviors and lifestyles, promoting safety practices, informing the public of risks or services, and driving social change.
Specifically a PSA has these key features
- Public intent – Primary goal is public well-being over commercial gain
- Sponsored content – Aired free of charge by media outlets
- Limited airtime – Typically 30 or 60 seconds in length
- Fact-based – Relies on presenting facts rather than selling
- Persuasive – Seeks to influence public attitudes and actions
Effective PSAs find creative ways to grab the viewer’s attention within a concise time frame and communicate an impactful message.
A Look Back at the History of PSAs
The use of public service announcements took off during World War II as governments recognized the power of media messaging to influence public behavior in support of the war effort
1940s: Wartime PSAs promoted conservation, recruiting, bond purchases, secrecy, and home defense. Governments partnered with media outlets to air them as their patriotic duty.
1950s: Focus expanded beyond war messaging to safety, health, and social issues. TV enabled messages to reach broader audiences.
1960s-70s: Creative styles like humor, shock value, celebrity cameos became more common in PSAs. Funding expanded beyond governments to nonprofits.
1980s-90s: Public advocacy groups used PSAs to fight drunk driving, smoking, and HIV/AIDS. Corporate social responsibility campaigns emerged.
2000s: Internet enabled greater reach and customization of messages through social media and digital platforms.
Today public service announcements continue to educate and inspire action on many of society’s most pressing social issues.
Notable and Effective PSAs Throughout History
Here are some of the most memorable and impactful public service announcements from over the decades:
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Smokey Bear – One of the longest running campaigns, it started in 1944 with the slogan “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires.” It effectively reduced accidental wildfires.
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Keep America Beautiful – This iconic 1970 commercial featured a Native American saddened by pollution and litter with the tagline “People Start Pollution. People Can Stop It.”
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Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk – A powerful 1980s PSA campaign by the Ad Council used impactful stories to discourage drunk driving.
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A Mind is a Terrible Thing To Waste – This long-running United Negro College Fund campaign created awareness about inequities in education.
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The Tipping Point – The stark 1987 AIDS PSA showed how easily the disease could spread to make the point that “AIDS Affects Everyone.”
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This is Your Brain on Drugs – The Partnership for a Drug Free America’s 1987 PSA used a vivid metaphor of an egg sizzling in a pan.
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A Crash Course in Brain Injury – Allstate Insurance’s 1990s seatbelt safety ads used humor and shock value to capture attention.
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The Truth Campaign – These provocative ads exposed manipulative tobacco industry tactics to prevent youth smoking.
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Feed the Pig – This National Foundation for Credit Counseling campaign used a piggy bank metaphor to promote wise money management.
Crafting an Effective Public Service Announcement
An effective PSA formula combines both science and art. Follow these best practices when designing a campaign:
Identify a Specific Goal
- What do you want the audience to think, feel and do differently? Get very targeted.
Understand Your Audience
- Analyze their demographics, motivations, knowledge gaps and barriers to action around your issue.
Convey a Clear Call-to-Action
- Provide a tangible behavior for the audience, not just a vague message.
Make it Memorable
- Use emotion, storytelling, metaphors and other creative tactics to make it stick.
Keep it Brief
- Thirty seconds is optimal. You only have a few seconds to grab attention.
Amplify the Message
- Place it strategically online, on radio, TV and out-of-home displays.
Measure Results
- Track awareness, attitude shifts and behavior change to gauge impact.
Who Creates and Sponsors Public Service Announcements?
A variety of organizations develop and distribute public service announcements today, including:
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Government agencies – Federal, state or local governments create PSAs on issues that impact public welfare like health, safety, education and the environment.
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Nonprofit organizations – Causes and advocacy groups sponsor PSAs to raise awareness on issues they champion.
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Corporations – As part of corporate social responsibility efforts, companies sponsor PSAs on relevant social causes.
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Advertising and PR firms – Agencies often create PSAs pro bono as a way to give back and do social good.
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Media companies – TV networks, radio stations and digital platforms air PSAs as part of their public service commitment.
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Celebrities – Well-known personalities sometimes participate in PSAs to draw attention to key issues they care about.
Why are Public Service Announcements Important?
Public service announcements play a valuable role in society by:
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Educating and informing – PSAs raise awareness of risks, preventative actions, rights and resources available.
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Changing attitudes and beliefs – They can influence perceptions on sensitive or controversial social topics.
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Encouraging positive behaviors – PSAs motivate people to make better health, financial and civic decisions.
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Promoting important causes – They rally support and engagement for social and environmental advocacy.
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Saving lives – PSAs have life-saving impact when promoting safety, health, community involvement and responsible choices.
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Bringing about societal change – By sparking millions of micro-changes in individual knowledge, attitudes and actions, PSAs can transform culture over time.
How do you produce a PSA?
If youre planning on sending in a pre-recorded PSA, decide whether you should produce it yourself or bring in outside help at this point. Generally, its not a good idea to produce it yourself unless youre sure you can do a professional-quality job. Everyone has seen or heard at least a few badly produced local PSAs in their time; you know it can negatively affect your opinion of an organization. If you cant be certain you can do a genuinely good job of it, you shouldnt attempt to produce your own PSA.
But dont despair! You can have a well-made PSA without going to the expense of paying a professional television or radio production company. Find out if anyone in your group has broadcasting experience. Approach area advertising agencies and production companies to see if any of them would donate personnel, studio time, or equipment for your PSA. Consider tapping into broadcasting students at any area universities. Theyre hungry for the experience and most upperclassmen will have had some formal training and experience.
As a last resort, you can pay a professional production or advertising company to produce your script. You may be able to get a reduced rate for nonprofit agencies, so be sure to ask about that possibility.
Tips for radio:
- Finding professional announcers is helpful but not vital. Volunteers at community or campus radio stations, people who read for the blind, and storytellers are all experienced in doing voiceover work. Just keep your target group in mind when choosing actors. People tend to respond better to those who sound like they might be their approximate age and background.
- In radio, your audience is usually doing at least one other thing in addition to listening; driving, reading, partying, studying, working, gardening, cleaning, etc. Its important to grab the audiences attention quickly and hold it.
- Try to use short, arresting sentences aimed directly at the listener at the beginning of the PSA to help grab their attention. For example: “Your heart could be a ticking time bomb. Has one or both of your parents had heart disease? If so, your chances of developing heart disease later in life are a lot higher than for most people.”
Tips for television:
- You have to tell the TV staff exactly what you want them to film. You must describe each shot in writing, and give the correct dialogue to go with that shot.
- Drama clubs, community theater groups, and the drama departments at your local high schools and universities are great places to find talent, and most of the members are eager for experience.
- Consider using slide/announcer spots, because theyre cheap and easy to produce. In a slide/announcer spot, an announcer reads the script while 35-mm slides are used for the visual portion of the PSA.
- If youre producing a television spot yourself, make up a storyboard for your script before you begin shooting. A storyboard shows sketches or photos of each individual spot in a television piece. It helps the director figure out how the entire piece will flow and what sort of camera angles and staging need to be set up.
- Avoid special effects. Theyre generally costly, and usually only distract viewers from the message.
Chances are good that you can get help from your local community access cable TV station. Many of them also offer free production courses, which could be useful to you if you might be producing videos on a regular basis.
Many local cable TV stations also do “scrolls,” or community-calendar type announcements. Your message might also be included as one of these. The announcement is often 25-50 words of copy, sometimes even less, and is often written similarly to a radio PSA. Check with your cable TV station for details.
If you can afford to, make multiple PSAs so that the same one doesnt play over and over. You dont want your audience to get sick of your message, so having different versions of the same message, or several different PSAs with different messages, is one way to mix things up and keep their attention. Keep it brief and simple! Focus what you want the viewer to do or remember after they see or hear your PSA. Stick to having only two or three main characters in the PSA to help your audience focus on the message. Let the actors give you feedback and make suggestions on the script. They will appreciate that you take their input seriously, and they often have great ideas. When information changes (for example, with AIDS PSAs, where new treatments are being developed all the time), change your PSAs as soon as possible. Contact the station(s) playing it and get them to stop running old material, and produce new PSAs with updated information as quickly as you can. Talk with your actors and production staff about payment or donated time, and have a written agreement in place before production begins.
How do you write a PSA?
Decide upon and clarify the purpose of your PSA. What are your goals here? What do you want to accomplish by putting a PSA on the air? And for that matter, why use a PSA instead of other publicity outlets?
- Target your audience. What type of people are you hoping to reach through your PSA? This will help you focus in both your desired media outlets, and also upon your PSA content.
- Survey your media outlets to best reach that audience. That means that you need to know what media outlets are available in your particular geographic area.
- Prioritize your media outlets. That is, you need to know which outlets your target audience is most likely to prefer. For example, is your audience more likely to tune in to the 24-hour country music station than to the one that plays mostly golden oldies? If so, then you point toward the country music outlet.
Also, when does your audience tend to tune in to these outlets? For example, is your desired audience a bunch of early risers? Then youd probably want to reach them early in the morning, as opposed to late at night, if you possibly can. However, dont count on being able to pick the time of day for your PSA to run. Thats why getting to know your media personnel is so important — its easier to ask a favor of someone you know.
Approach your preferred media outlets. Here you want to make a personal contact, as best you can, directly with the station manager in small markets, or with the person whos responsible for choosing PSAs for broadcast. A phone call is good; a personal meeting is better. Find out a bit about their requirements for PSAs — what format they want to receive them in, preferred length, when to submit them, etc. See “How do you get your PSA on the air?” later on in this section for more detailed information on how to go about this.
Write your PSA. The actual writing waits until this point, because you first need to know your audience, your markets, and their policies.
What is a Public Service Announcement?
What is a public service announcement?
A public service announcement, or PSA, is a message shared with the general public that raises awareness about an issue. Although most public service announcements have the overarching goal of informing their audience, a PSA may also serve to inspire the public to take action or make a change.
What is a Public Service Announcement (PSA)?
See media help. A public service announcement ( PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film ( PIF ); in Hong Kong, they are known as an announcement in the public interest ( API ).
How do I create a public service announcement?
Follow these steps to create a public service announcement: 1. Decide on your topic There may be a lot of issues about which you’re passionate. Think hard about what is currently the most pressing and pertinent issue and decide which topic you can develop a PSA about that will have a large impact on the public.
What makes a good public service announcement?
Get to the point quickly. Emotionally charged PSAs are more likely to resonate with viewers. Whether it’s humor, empathy, or fear, select an emotional trigger that aligns with the message. Weave a compelling narrative into the public service announcement. Stories have the power to engage and captivate, making the message more memorable.
