May 10, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
When a shock jock like Don Imus goes over the line with on-air comments, businesses have the power to send a statement by pulling their advertising.
But charities that work with the nonprofit Advertising Council have no such power, writes Dan Prives, a nonprofit finance expert, on his blog, Where Most Needed.
The Ad Council works to get free public service ads for charities placed on radio stations. The ads usually fill time when stations cannot get paying advertisers — and the council does not stipulate when or how often they run.
As a result, stations sometimes choose to run them at inopportune times, Mr. Prives writes.
“What [listeners] heard on Mancow’s Morning Madness (syndicated out of Chicago), along with a conversation where a caller was labeled a ‘brain-dead fetus,’ was an ad for the American Council on Education,” he writes.
Should the Ad Council place stipulations on when public-service ads should not run? Do listeners get offended by the mix of shock jocks and public-service ads?
Click on the comments link below this post to share your thoughts.
