November 23, 2006 | Read Time: 2 minutes
McGruff the Crime Dog, Rosie the Riveter, and Smokey Bear have become American icons.
They also show how creative advertising can help charities communicate their message and change people’s behavior, according to the organizers of “Ads Matter: Celebrating Advertising & Social Impact,” an exhibit of public-service campaigns on display through the end of the month at the New York Public Library.
“Advertising has that power to wake Americans up to an issue they weren’t thinking about before, or help them see issues in a new way,” says Priscilla Natkins, vice president of the Ad Council, which produced five of the 16 images that are featured in the exhibit.
The exhibit chronicles the history of the advertisements from their beginnings in World War II to the present.
Among the earliest images is Rosie the Riveter (1942), whose flexed biceps and cry “We Can Do It!” helped recruit two million women into wartime jobs.
Another character on display is Smokey Bear, who began telling Americans in 1944, “Only you can prevent forest fires.” That message has helped slash by 60 percent the number of acres destroyed by forest fires each year.
Some of the exhibit’s starkest images were created by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, started in the mid-1980s by a group of advertising executives.
Most memorable, perhaps, is the organization’s 1986 ad “Fried Egg,” which shows an egg sizzling in a frying pan alongside the words “This is your brain on drugs.” One 1999 advertisement warns parents about inhalants with this dramatic line: “How to write an obituary for your teenager.”
“Companies every day use the power of advertising to sell products, to sell cars, to sell baby powder,” says Paul Costiglio, deputy director of public affairs for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. “The idea that was generated was, Can we use the same power of advertising to unsell to teens the idea of using drugs.”
Newer advertisements on display include the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s three-year campaign to fight online sexual exploitation, which began in 2004.
A poster from the campaign, designed by the Ad Council and Merkley and Partners, shows a computer keyboard cast in shadow. Its message reads: “A sexual predator doesn’t need a crowbar or an open window to get into your child’s room.”
Newspapers, television, and other news and entertainment outlets have donated $130-million in free advertising for the campaign, says Lisa Cullen, the group’s communications manager. And nearly 10,000 people have called the organization’s hotline since 2004 to report cases of online enticement.
“We don’t do direct mail, so this gives us a chance to reach people through television, the Web, and radio and to impact people where they are, in their cars and their homes,” says Ms. Cullen.
For more information about the exhibit, go to http://www.nypl.org.
