Charity Ads Valued at Nearly $1-Billion

More than $996-million worth of air time and print space was donated to the Advertising Council by news organizations and other groups for public-service announcements last year. That was a 7-per-cent increase over 1996, said the Ad Council, which produces numerous public-service advertisements in behalf of charities.

However, the group said that the amount of space for public-service announcements dropped in certain instances. Business publications reduced their donations by 55 per cent, to $2.8-million; bus shelters, subways, and other types of public-transportation advertising dwindled by 40 per cent, to $2.7-million. The value of space in consumer magazines dropped by 26 per cent, to $13.8-million.

Ad Council executives blamed those declines on a lack of public-service ads designed for those spaces.

The biggest increase for PSA’s was in an area that the Ad Council calls “new media,” which includes World-Wide Web sites and the Yellow Pages. There, PSA’s rose by 106 per cent, to $60.7-million worth of space. Also, broadcast-television spots increased by 42 per cent, to $129.6-million worth of air time.

Radio broadcasters were the most generous to the Ad Council, donating $586-million in air time last year — 6 per cent more than they did in 1996.