SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Okay. So if I say this is your brain on drugs, or maybe friends don't let friends drive drunk.

SPEAKER_00: 0:05

Instantly recognizable.

SPEAKER_01: 0:06

Exactly. Or that uh that absolute classic, right? Only you can prevent forest fires. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 0:12

You hear Smokey Bear.

SPEAKER_01: 0:13

You do. It immediately clicks. I mean, I still kind of hear his voice if I like leave the microwave on too long with popcorn.

SPEAKER_00: 0:19

Aaron Powell It's true, though. They had this lasting impact, right? And it's because they somehow manage to well break through all the noise, all that commercial advertising we usually just tune out. We're talking about public service announcements, PSAs. And they're you know fundamentally different. Their currency isn't money, it's change.

SPEAKER_01: 0:36

Aaron Powell That's a great way to put it. PSAs are really designed to make the public or maybe specific groups more aware of an issue. It could be education, health, mental health, uh public epidemics. Right. And the end goal is always, always getting you to take action or make some kind of change. It's about influencing society on an issue, which I mean that's a whole different ballgame than selling soda, isn't it? Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00: 0:58

Totally different psychology. Yeah. And that that intentionality behind them is exactly what we need to unpack today. Our mission, really, is to get past the catchy slogans and figure out the specific ingredients, the science of the slogan, you could say. Okay. What makes these things actually work versus the ones that just disappear?

SPEAKER_01: 1:15

Yeah, good question. Okay, let's unpack this. Maybe start with some real-world examples because they really show the range, don't they? It's not all like super dramatic appeals.

SPEAKER_00: 1:25

No, not at all. A really good example of a um tightly focused campaign is from the Department of Defense, the DOD.

SPEAKER_01: 1:34

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:34

Raffordi OAce Media produced this video, Buckle Up and Survive, sponsored by the Defense Safety Oversight Council. And this wasn't just, you know, a general drive safe message.

SPEAKER_01: 1:44

Aaron Powell Right. It was targeted. That's a theme we'll probably come back to. Its purpose was super specific, wasn't it? Addressing how distracted driving was actually injuring and killing service members. So it was encouraging them specifically to buckle up, tackling a very specific high-stakes problem for that group.

SPEAKER_00: 2:01

Aaron Powell Precisely. Now, contrast that really tight focus with something aimed at, well, massive collective action, like the partnership between Major League Baseball and Stand Up to Cancer. That's been going on a while.

SPEAKER_01: 2:14

Oh, yeah. The SUTC campaign, that's huge. Massive awareness, right. Supporting cancer research.

SPEAKER_00: 2:20

Aaron Powell And what's clever there is how they anchor it. They tie it into something everyone recognizes at a baseball game.

SPEAKER_01: 2:25

Aaron Powell The standing up part.

SPEAKER_00: 2:26

Yeah. You know, for all the moments we stand up at a game, seventh inning stretch, a great play, whatever they say. The most important one is when we all stand up to cancer together.

SPEAKER_01: 2:36

Hmm. That's smart. It takes that spectator experience and kind of co-ops it, turning it into this like supportive, unified action. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00: 2:45

Connects that high emotion with collective action. That's a powerful mix. Um then you also see PSAs driving like future workforce stuff. Yeah. Very different goal again.

SPEAKER_01: 2:54

Like STEM fields.

SPEAKER_00: 2:55

Exactly. Think about the Wishes PSA from CA Technologies.

SPEAKER_01: 2:59

Ah, I remember that one. Their goal was really long-term, wasn't it? Supporting future generations, encouraging kids to learn math and science, pursue STEM careers.

SPEAKER_00: 3:07

Aaron Powell Yeah. It shows a commitment way beyond, you know, their next quarterly report, big societal goal, but delivered through a focus announcement.

SPEAKER_01: 3:15

And then there's like family and community health stuff. Sometimes that needs more of an emotional nudge than a direct do this action.

SPEAKER_00: 3:23

Good point. The 2019 ad council campaign, Dance Like a Dad.

SPEAKER_01: 3:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:28

That was for HHS Chet ACF, the Administration for Children and Families. Great example.

SPEAKER_01: 3:33

Oh, the dancing dads. Yeah, that series just showed dads and their kids having fun dancing together. It felt purely inspirational. Totally. The message wasn't, you know, call this hotline. It was more like, hey, get involved in your kids' life, trying to support working dads, maybe shift that cultural view that it's only moms who are primary caregivers.

SPEAKER_00: 3:51

Exactly. So we've seen these successes, right? From immediate safety things to like long-term cultural shifts. So now let's get into the why, the underlying strategy. Okay. This is where it gets really interesting, I think. We can sort of boil down why these worked into maybe four core pillars of effectiveness. Aaron Powell All right.

SPEAKER_01: 4:11

Lay pillar one on us. But I want to push back a bit here because this feels like where the, you know, the money and the mission might clash.

SPEAKER_00: 4:17

Aaron Powell Fair enough. Pillar one. Yeah. Mutual benefit. The idea is that PSAs give organizations, government agencies, nonprofits, even big companies, a chance to spread awareness about their cause and at the same time shine a light on their own mission or work.

SPEAKER_01: 4:32

Aaron Powell Okay, wait. Mutual benefit. Is that just a nice way of saying, like, corporate self-interest? How do we know it's actually benefiting the public and isn't just, I don't know, a tax write-off or some cheap PR?

SPEAKER_00: 4:45

Aaron Powell That's the crucial question. Absolutely. And the sources are pretty clear. The benefit has to flow both ways. But yeah, the corporate or government side often gets tangible benefits. Things like uh improving their brand image, fulfilling CSR goals, becoming seen as a leader on an issue. And yeah, sometimes tax benefits or good press are part of it.

SPEAKER_01: 5:02

Aaron Powell But the public benefit has to be real.

SPEAKER_00: 5:04

Aaron Powell Non-negotiable. And you measure that public benefit by the call to action. This is the critical piece of pillar one. The PSA must have a crystal clear call to action and provide resources people can actually use.

SPEAKER_01: 5:15

Ah, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 5:16

It's not enough to just raise awareness and like feel good about it. You have to show people exactly how to get involved, how to make that change after they see the ad. A website, a number to call, a concrete step, if that's missing.

SPEAKER_01: 5:31

Aaron Powell And the benefit to the public is basically zero. Pillar one falls apart.

SPEAKER_00: 5:35

Precisely. Which leads nicely into pillar two, authenticity. Or maybe think of it as being human-centered.

SPEAKER_01: 5:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 5:43

Creating a PSA that feels genuinely authentic is probably the surest way to make the message hit home. People are just much more likely to care and then act if they see how the cause personally affects them or someone like them or their community.

SPEAKER_01: 5:56

Right. If it feels fake or too polished, you just switch off.

SPEAKER_00: 5:59

Instantly.

SPEAKER_01: 5:59

That makes me think sometimes those PSAs using real stories, maybe even like slightly shaky home video footage, they resonate way more than some big budget ad with a celebrity, don't they?

SPEAKER_00: 6:10

They absolutely can. That rawness feels real.

SPEAKER_01: 6:12

Yeah, the rawness is the reality.

SPEAKER_00: 6:14

And that emotional connection flows right into pillar three. Targeted relevance. The message just can't be one size fits all. The really powerful PSAs, they're aimed specifically at their intended audience, not just reflecting the company's general business goals.

SPEAKER_01: 6:29

Okay. So if pillar two is authenticity, pillar three is making sure that authenticity actually lands with the right people. But doesn't that sometimes, I don't know, backfire? If it's too targeted, does it lose its power to raise broad awareness? Like we need everyone to care about climate change, not just people on the coasts.

SPEAKER_00: 6:46

Right. That's the tension, definitely. But what the research suggests is that really broad general awareness often doesn't actually lead to action. It's too diffuse. Hyper-targeting, which we can do now with you know all the data segmentation tools, it lets you customize the message. So it's relevant enough to cut through the apathy and actually compel action within that specific group. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01: 7:07

Like the DOD example. They weren't talking to every driver on the road. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00: 7:10

No, they were talking to service members. People trained to follow safety rules. The relevance was immediate, direct.

SPEAKER_01: 7:16

And I remember reading a key point was that to really nail this relevance, the organization should actually have people from that target audience involved in making the PSA.

SPEAKER_00: 7:26

Aaron Powell Yes. That's the authenticity check. It ensures the language, the scenarios, the emotional triggers, they all ring true. They're not just guessing.

SPEAKER_01: 7:35

Makes total sense.

SPEAKER_00: 7:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 7:37

Okay. And the last pillar, pillar four.

SPEAKER_00: 7:39

Pillar four. Results oriented. Meaning the main point of a PSA isn't just to make people aware of something, it's to invoke change. You got to move the needle.

SPEAKER_01: 7:48

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 7:49

So the message needs to focus on action items. Instead of just listing, you know, all the reasons why something is bad, effective PSAs promote healthier choices, or they tell you how to get involved in your community or point you towards help.

SPEAKER_01: 8:01

Gotcha. They give you something concrete to do right away, not just a slogan to maybe remember later.

SPEAKER_00: 8:06

Exactly. Actionable steps.

SPEAKER_01: 8:08

Okay. So those four pillars mutual benefit, authenticity, targeted relevance, and results orientation, those are the recipe for success. So what happens when things go wrong? What are the common ways these messages just fall flat?

SPEAKER_00: 8:19

Yeah, this is the flip side. Super important. There seem to be four major traps. Failure number one, weak messaging.

SPEAKER_01: 8:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 8:28

You can have a super flashy PSA, maybe get a big celebrity, spend a ton on production. But if the actual argument underneath it all is weak or easy for the audience to dismiss based on their own experience, it just fails.

SPEAKER_01: 8:41

So the sizzle can't save a bad stake, basically.

SPEAKER_00: 8:44

Pretty much, yeah. If the poor message is hollow, all the glitz just makes it an expensive flop.

SPEAKER_01: 8:49

Right. What's failure two?

SPEAKER_00: 8:50

Failure two. Irrelevant audience. This ties back to targeting. If your PSA ends up reaching communities who just don't relate to the cause at all, they won't feel any empathy. They won't care. Maybe the ad is memorable, like they remember seeing it. But if the call to action doesn't connect with their life or their environment, say you're telling people in a really remote rural area to use subway-based mental health services.

SPEAKER_01: 9:14

Yeah, that's not gonna work.

SPEAKER_00: 9:15

They won't be inspired, they can't act on it. The context has to match the call to action.

SPEAKER_01: 9:20

Okay, let's focus on failure three, because this one seems really counterintuitive, relying only on scare tactics.

SPEAKER_00: 9:27

Ah, yeah. This is a big one. Trying to shock people into changing their behavior, especially using only fire, can be really ineffective and sometimes actually damaging.

SPEAKER_01: 9:37

How so?

SPEAKER_00: 9:38

Well, if the audience doesn't personally know anyone affected by whatever scary thing you're showing, they might just see it as over-the-top drama.

SPEAKER_01: 9:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 9:44

They get desensitized, or they just dismiss it.

SPEAKER_01: 9:47

Okay, that makes sense. But the really wild part was that sometimes it can actually lead to the behavior it's trying to stop. How on earth does that happen?

SPEAKER_00: 9:54

Yeah, it's kind of shocking, but it happens mainly in two ways. First, if a PSA about something risky, like addiction or dangerous behavior is too dramatic, it can accidentally end up making it look exciting. Glorifying it. Sort of, yeah. Like portraying it as rebellious or powerful. Second, the second the audience spots hyperbole, you know, the ad claims doing something once leads to immediate disaster. And they know that's not usually true. They just lose trust.

SPEAKER_01: 10:20

Credibility's gone.

SPEAKER_00: 10:21

Totally. And once that's gone, the message is ignored. And sometimes talking about the forbidden thing so much can actually normalize it a bit. You have to be incredibly thoughtful when you're dealing with harsh truths. You can't just rely on shock value.

SPEAKER_01: 10:34

Wow. That's a really scary way for a campaign to fail. Okay, what's the final trap?

SPEAKER_00: 10:39

Failure for is lack of reinforcement. It's just the reality of our, you know, attention economy today. People aren't usually convinced to take action after seeing a PSA just once or even twice. Aaron Powell Right.

SPEAKER_01: 10:51

You're bombarded with messages constantly.

SPEAKER_00: 10:53

Exactly. Building confidence in the message, getting someone to actually follow through on that call to action. It takes reinforcement, constant reinforcement across multiple channels.

SPEAKER_01: 11:02

Aaron Powell So you need repetition, but also variety in where people see it. Did the source material say anything about like how much exposure is needed?

SPEAKER_00: 11:10

Yeah, the idea of required exposure is key. We're just swimming in thousands of messages every day. PSAs are competing with huge commercial ad budgets. And studies show again and again a message often needs multiple exposures, sometimes double digits, depending on how complex the change is, just to move from, oh, I saw that, to, okay, I trust this and finally I'm gonna do that.

SPEAKER_01: 11:33

That sounds like a massive coordinated effort needed.

SPEAKER_00: 11:36

It is. Which means finding partners who really get the digital landscape is crucial. You have to make sure that message gets seen wherever your audience spends time online, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, you name it.

SPEAKER_01: 11:48

You need to hit that exposure rate to build the confidence.

SPEAKER_00: 11:50

Precisely. You need to be everywhere they are and you need to be there consistently, not just a one-off.

SPEAKER_01: 11:55

Okay. So pulling this all together, what does it all mean? It seems like the really effective PSAs aren't just about clever lines. There's this deep, almost surgical level of intentionality needed.

SPEAKER_00: 12:08

Absolutely. It's about balancing that influence with solid information. It requires real thought about who exactly is getting this message, why the organization is sending it, and crucially, what specific actionable step can that person take, like right now. The success really seems to hinge on making the audience feel personally connected or affected, and then right away giving them a clear, doable path forward and reminding them about it.

SPEAKER_01: 12:35

Constantly reminding them. Which brings us to a final thought for you, our listeners, to me, chew on. If these powerful PSAs need that constant reinforcement across all these different platforms just to stick and actually change behavior, what does that requirement tell us about our collective attention span right now?

SPEAKER_00: 12:51

Yeah, that's a big question.

SPEAKER_01: 12:52

And maybe more pointedly, think about the cost that sustained multi platform saturation needed for reinforcement. It's expensive. So how does that economic reality affect smaller but maybe equally vital public service issues? Issues that just don't have the big budgets for that continuous widespread placement? Are important messages getting lost simply because reinforcing them isn't seen as, you know, economically viable?