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Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions


Campaign & PSA Questions


Website & Technical Questions

General Answers

Public service advertising is commonly defined as "advertising that serves the public interest." The objective of these ads is education and awareness of significant social issues in an effort to change the public's attitudes and behaviors and stimulate positive social change. For more information about PSAs and the Ad Council's criteria, please visit the Non-Profit Resources section of the website.

General operating contributions from more than 375 individuals, corporations, foundations, and constituent organizations are the Ad Council's principal source of funding. Each year, we host the Ad Council's Public Service Award Dinner, our largest fund-raising event at which we honor a business leader for his or her commitment to public service. If you would like to contribute to the Ad Council, please visit the Donate section of our website.

Ad Council campaigns are produced pro bono by advertising agencies retained by the American Association of Advertising Agencies. Each Ad Council campaign is sponsored by a non-profit organization or a government agency that provides the production and distribution costs and serves as the "issue expert." The Ad Council works with the advertising agencies and the sponsor organizations throughout the development of the campaign by conducting research, media outreach, public relations activities, and creative services.

Each year, the Ad Council honors a corporate leader with its Public Service Award. The award is presented at the Annual Public Service Award Dinner, held each November in New York City. The Ad Council also presents media awards (Silver and Gold Bells) to media outlets that exemplify extraordinary generosity in disseminating the organization's public service messages. Additionally, the Ad Council presents an award to a volunteer advertising agency that has gone above and beyond in its work on our campaigns.

All media outlets in the United States can run and air Ad Council PSAs in donated advertising time and space. To find a list of current materials and contact information for ordering materials, please visit PSA Central.

Ad Council campaigns are non-commercial, non-partisan, non-denominational, national in scope, and sponsored by a national non-profit organization or federal government agency. If you would like information on how to become an Ad Council campaign or an endorsed campaign, please visit the Become an Ad Council Campaign page of the Get Involved section.


Campaign & PSA Answers

To find information about historic Ad Council campaigns, you can visit the Historic Campaigns section of our website or contact the campaign sponsor. If you do not know the name of the organization that sponsored the campaign, please use the Contact Us form to send your question. 

For materials from specific Ad Council campaigns, please contact our individual campaign sponsor organizations. You can find these sponsors and their contact information in the Organizations section of the website.

The Ad Council produces public service advertisements (PSAs). If you have questions about commercial advertisements or other ads, we suggest contacting the American Association of Advertising Agencies. All Ad Council PSAs carry the Ad Council's logo. Therefore, if you do not see the logo on the advertisement, it is not an Ad Council PSA. If you would like information about one of our current PSAs, please visit the Campaigns section of the website.

We welcome your feedback. You can send an email to comments@adcouncil.org. Please note that your comments may be considered for posting on our website and in Ad Council publications.

In order to obtain permission for usage of Ad Council PSAs for events, textbooks or other books or educational materials, you must contact the campaign sponsor. For a list of sponsors, please visit the Organizations section of the website. If you are looking to include a PSA that is no longer an Ad Council campaign, please email the Ad Council directly for information on how to get in touch with the sponsor.

If you have a suggestion for a current Ad Council PSA campaign, you can contact the campaign sponsor by visiting the Organizations section of our website. If you represent a non-profit organization or government agency that is an expert on a pressing social issue and you have a suggestion for a campaign or issue that you would like the Ad Council to address, you can contact Non-Profit & Government Affairs at the Ad Council.

If you would like to develop a PSA campaign, but you do not meet the Ad Council's criteria, we suggest contacting a local advertising agency that may be interested in developing the campaign pro bono or contacting your local media to determine their interest in lending support to the issue.

Our volunteer advertising agencies are selected through the American Association of Advertising Agencies. All directors, producers, and copywriters who work on our PSAs are retained by the volunteer agencies. If you would like to get involved, you can contact the AAAA's or one of the advertising agencies working on our campaigns.

The Ad Council produces and distributes PSAs that are developed by our volunteer advertising agencies on behalf of our current PSA campaigns. You may, however, consider applying for Ad Council endorsement of your campaign. Find out more at the Become an Endorsed Campaign page of the Get Involved section.

Without exception, all Ad Council television PSAs are closed-captioned (cc), and all tape copies originating from the Ad Council have closed-captioning (cc). Closed-Captioning (cc) displays the dialogue, narration and sound effects of a video program as text on a television screen, similar to subtitles in a movie.

Additionally, beginning in August 2003, many Ad Council television PSAs will begin to utilize Descriptive Video, a spoken description of key visual elements, such as actions, phone numbers, website addresses etc., that a viewer who is visually impaired would ordinarily miss. Descriptive Video is incorporated into programming via the Secondary Audio Program (SAP) channel in the same manner as Spanish translations of English programs.


Website & Technical Answers

Most browsers can be used. However, the site is optimized for Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.0 and above. To download the latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer, visit: www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/.

To report a problem, please e-mail webmaster@adcouncil.org.

Javascript is required to play the majority of television and radio PSAs on the Ad Council website. If you are experiencing difficulty seeing or hearing the PSAs, and do not have Java, you can download it at the Java Software website. If you already have Java, make sure Javascript is enabled in your browser's security settings. For help enabling Javascript, e-mail webmaster@adcouncil.org.

RealPlayer/RealOne Player is required to play other television and radio PSAs on the Ad Council website. A recent version is recommended. If you have a recent version installed on your computer and experience problems playing our PSAs, make sure that files with a ".smi" extension are associated with the RealPlayer/RealOne Player.

For help associating files, visit the RealNetworks website for assistance. For all other problems, e-mail webmaster@adcouncil.org.

The PSAs featured on the Ad Council website cannot be downloaded. Requests for digital copies should be e-mailed to webmaster@adcouncil.org. NOTE: Due to usage restrictions, the Ad Council may not be able to fulfill all requests.

Thank you for your interest in donating advertising space on your website or advertising network. The Ad Council has a collection of PSA web banners in a variety of ad units. Please register to use PSA Central and visit the Internet section for instructions.