How to Create the Perfect Public Service Announcement

Whether you have a cause of your own or you are an educator, PSAs create a forum
for learners to actively participate in a project that will allow them to become
stewards of and advocates for social change.
What do you want the world to know? That's the central question asked when you
are creating a public service announcement (PSA), which is any message promoting
programs, activities or services of federal, state or local governments or the
programs, activities or services of non-profit organizations.
Often in the form of commercials and print ads, PSAs are created to persuade an
audience to take a favorable action. PSAs can create awareness, show the
importance of a problem or issue, convey information, or promote a behavioral
change. Whether you have a cause of your own or you are an educator, PSAs create
a forum for learners to actively participate in a project that allows them to become
stewards of and advocates for social change.
PSAs came into being with the entry of the United States into World War II. Radio
broadcasters and advertising agencies created a council that offered their skills and
facilities to the war effort, creating messages such as, "Loose lips sink ships," "Keep
'em Rolling" and a variety of exhortations to buy War Bonds.
Today that same council, the Advertising Council, now serves as a facilitating
agency and clearing house for nationwide campaigns that have become a familiar
part of daily life. "Smokey the Bear" was invented by the Ad Council to personify its
"Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires" campaign; "A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste"
raised millions for the United Negro College Fund; the American Cancer Society's
"Fight Cancer with a Checkup and a Check" raised public awareness as well as funds
for research and patient services.
Yet the most recognized PSA consisted of only an egg, a frying pan and these 15
words: "This is your brain. This is drugs. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?"
This only goes to show the massive impact PSAs have on our culture and our
society. You can make an impact too!

Getting Started
1.

Choose your topic. Pick a subject that is important to you, as well as one you
can visualize. Keep your focus narrow and to the point. More than one idea
confuses your audience, so have one main idea per PSA.

2.

Time for some research - you need to know your stuff! Try to get the most
current and up to date facts on your topic. Statistics and references can add to a
PSA. You want to be convincing and accurate.

3.

Consider your audience. Are you targeting parents, teens, teachers or some
other social group? Consider your target audience's needs, preferences, as well
as the things that might turn them off. They are the ones you want to rally to
action. The action suggested by the PSA can be almost anything. It can be
spelled out or implied in your PSA, just make sure that message is clear.

4.

Grab your audience's attention. You might use visual effects, an emotional
response, humor, or surprise to catch your target audience. Be careful,
however, of using scare tactics. Attention getters are needed, but they must be
carefully selected. For example, when filming a PSA about controlling anger, a
glass-framed picture of a family can be shattered on camera. This was dramatic,
but not melodramatic. Staging a scene between two angry people to convey the
same idea is more difficult to do effectively.

5.

Create a script and keep your script to a few simple statements. A 30-second
PSA will typically require about 5 to 7 concise assertions. Highlight the major
and minor points that you want to make. Be sure the information presented in
the PSA is based on up-to-date, accurate research, findings and/or data.

6.

Storyboard your script.

7.

Film your footage and edit your PSA.

8.

Find your audience and get their reaction. How do they respond and is it in
the way you expected? Your goal is to call your audience to action. Are they
inspired?

Through a Public Service Announcement you can bring your community together
around a subject that is important to you. Will your PSA be on education, poverty,
drunk driving, or maybe even Haiti disaster relief? For ideas and examples, check
out the Ad Council and the Ad Council Gallery. Keep your message clear and simple,
and target your intended audience. Take advantage of your interests, and practice
important critical thinking and literacy skills because you will be spreading
important social, economic, and political topics.

"This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?"

"A mind is a terrible thing to waste."

"Friends don't let friends drive drunk."

"You could learn a lot from a dummy."
How many of these phrases ring a bell? These widely recognized slogans from
national public service announcement campaigns by the Ad Council have become a
part of our culture.
While the above examples were all big-budget campaigns, your own organization's
public service announcements (also known as PSA's) -- even if they're a small,
locally-produced campaign -- can be a great inexpensive way to get your message
out to the public.
W H AT I S A P U B L I C S E RV I C E A N N O U N C E M E N T ?
Public service announcements, or PSA's, are short messages produced on film,
videotape, DVD, CD, audiotape, or as a computer file and given to radio and
television stations. Generally, PSA's are sent as ready-to-air audio or video tapes,
although radio stations (especially community or public stations, such as campus
radio or National Public Radio affiliates) sometimes prefer a script that their
announcers can read live on the air. They can be done very simply with a single
actor reading or performing a message, or they can be elaborate, slickly-produced
messages with music, dramatic story-lines, and sound or visual effects.
Broadcast media -- radio and television -- are required by the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) to serve "in the public interest." Most stations
use PSA's as one of the ways they meet this requirement. While they aren't required
to donate a fixed percentage of air time per day to PSA's, stations do have to state
in their licensing and renewal applications how much air time they plan to devote to
PSA's. Most stations donate about a third of their commercial spots to noncommercial causes; in other words, if a station has 18 minutes of commercials in a
given hour, six minutes of that will probably be devoted to PSA's.
Advantages of PSA's

PSA's are generally inexpensive. Since the airtime is donated, your only cost
is production. If you keep to a tight budget, you can make PSA's very cheaply.

Most stations will allow you to include a telephone number for more
information in your PSA.

PSA's tend to be really effective at encouraging the audience to do something

-- for example, call a phone number for more information, use condoms, or
have your pet spayed or neutered.

PSA's can raise awareness of your issue.

Limitations of PSA's

Because PSA's depend on donated time, you'll often find you're not able to
get them run on all the media outlets you'd like to, or you may find yourself
at the mercy of station staff members who may be overworked, arbitrary, or
personally opposed to your group's work. PSA's are often run as "filler" in the
middle of the night or during other times when only a few people are listening
or watching.

The competition among non-profit groups for free air time is very stiff -depending on the market, there could be hundreds of other groups vying for
time on any given station. You may not be able to count on getting a lot of air
time for your PSA's.

Stations tend to shy away from "controversial" PSA's. If your group focuses on
an issue that is the subject of heated public debate -- anti-abortion advocacy
or gay rights, for example -- you may have a hard time convincing stations to
run your PSA.

Stations may not track and report when your PSA's have been played, but
they will do this for paid advertising.

PSA's do require a bit of work on your part, and they tend to be ineffective at
influencing policy. Consider them more when you have a specific action you
want the viewer or listener to take, or coordinate with other activities
designed to influence people's behavior.

W H E N S H O U L D YO U C O N S I D E R U S I N G P S A ' S ?
Here are some guidelines for deciding when you might want to incorporate PSA's
into your media campaign. Keep in mind that you don't necessarily have to meet all
of these criteria -- this is just a list of times that PSA's may be a good idea for your
group:

When your group is a nonprofit organization

When you have a specific announcement to make (for example, the time and
place of a meeting or event).

When you have a clear and easy-to-understand issue

When you're requesting a very specific action

When you have good contacts for getting your PSA on the air

When you have good writing and production skills

When you've previously used PSA's with success

When it's going to be part of a larger media campaign

H O W D O YO U W R I T E A P S A ?
Decide upon and clarify the purpose of your PSA. What are your goals here? What
do you want to accomplish by putting a PSA on the air? And for that matter, why
use a PSA instead of other publicity outlets?

Target your audience. What type of people are you hoping to reach through
your PSA? This will help you focus in both your desired media outlets, and
also upon your PSA content.

Survey your media outlets to best reach that audience. That means that you
need to know what media outlets are available in your particular geographic
area.

Prioritize your media outlets. That is, you need to know which outlets your
target audience is most likely to prefer. For example, is your audience more
likely to tune in to the 24-hour country music station than to the one that
plays mostly golden oldies? If so, then you point toward the country music
outlet.

Also, when does your audience tend to tune in to these outlets? For example, is
your desired audience a bunch of early risers? Then you'd probably want to reach
them early in the morning, as opposed to late at night, if you possibly can. However,
don't count on being able to pick the time of day for your PSA to run. That's why
getting to know your media personnel is so important -- it's easier to ask a favor of
someone you know.
Approach your preferred media outlets. Here you want to make a personal contact,
as best you can, directly with the station manager in small markets, or with the
person who's responsible for choosing PSA's for broadcast. A phone call is good; a
personal meeting is better. Find out a bit about their requirements for PSA's -- what
format they want to receive them in, preferred length, when to submit them, etc.
See "How do you get your PSA on the air?" later on in this section for more detailed
information on how to go about this.
Write your PSA. The actual writing waits until this point, because you first need to
know your audience, your markets, and their policies.
KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER ABOUT THE WRITING:

Because you've only got a few seconds to reach your audience (often 30
seconds or less), the language should be simple and vivid. Take your time and
make every word count. Make your message crystal clear.

The content of the writing should have the right "hooks" -- words or phrases
that grab attention -- to attract your audience (again, you need to know who
your audience is). For example, starting your PSA off with something like, "If
you're between the ages of 25 and 44, you're more likely to die from AIDS
than from any other disease."

The PSA should usually (though maybe not 100% of the time) request a
specific action, such as calling a specific number to get more information. You
ordinarily want listeners to do something as a result of having heard the PSA.

G E T T I N G R E A D Y T O W R I T E YO U R P S A :
Choose points to focus on. Don't overload the viewer or listener with too many
different messages. List all the possible messages you'd like to get into the public
mind, and then decide on the one or two most vital points. For example, if your
group educates people about asthma, you might narrow it down to a simple focus
point like, "If you have asthma, you shouldn't smoke."
Brainstorm. This is also a good time to look at the PSA's that others have done for
ideas. Get together with your colleagues to toss around ideas about ways you can
illustrate the main point(s) you've chosen. If possible, include members of your
target group in this process. If you're aiming your PSA at African-American youth, for
example, be sure to invite some African-American youth to take part in
brainstorming.
Check your facts. It's extremely important for your PSA to be accurate. Any facts
should be checked and verified before sending the PSA in. Is the information up to
date? If there are any demonstrations included in the PSA, are they done clearly and
correctly?

Identify a "hook". A hook is whatever you use to grab the listener or viewer's
attention. How are you going to keep them from changing the channel or leaving
the room or letting their attention drift when your PSA comes on? A hook can be
something funny, it can be catchy music, it can be a shocking statistic, it can be an
emotional appeal -- whatever makes the listener or viewer interested enough to
watch or listen to the rest of your PSA. For example, if you're aiming for Hispanic
listeners, your hook might be to have your PSA use Tejano or salsa background
music.
Now you're ready to write your script!
B A S I C G U I D E L I N E S F O R P S A F O R M AT:
Most stations prefer 30-second spots. If you're writing a television PSA, you'll want
to keep the announcer's copy 2 or 3 seconds shorter than the entire length of the
PSA. Television stations run on a much tighter, more rigid schedule than radio
stations, and you may find that if your PSA runs exactly 30 seconds, for example,
the station may sometimes cut off the end.
Length of PSA

10 seconds

15 seconds

20 seconds

30 seconds

Number of words

20-25 words 30-35 words 40-50 words 60-75 words

Your copy should be typed, double or triple-spaced.

You can put more than one spot per page for the shorter ones, but with 30 and 60
second spots, put them on separate pages.
The top of the sheet should list:

how long the PSA should run (i.e., "FOR USE: November 18 - December 20" or
"Imnediate: TFN" [til further notice])

length of the PSA

what agency or group the PSA is for, and

title of the PSA.

The script itself should be split into two columns; the left column will list all
directions, camera angles, sound effects, etc. and the right column lists all dialogue.
Don't use hyphenations or abbreviations.
The bottom of the sheet should be marked with "###", the standard ending used in
releases to the media to let the media outlet know there are no further pages to the
script or story.
Your script can be sent as "live copy"-- a simple script that's ready to be read by a
live on-air announcer -- or as a pre-recorded tape. While live copy is inexpensive
and is used extensively in radio, television stations rarely use live copy scripts.
Below is an example of a live copy PSA script for radio. Two longer scripts -- one for
radio and one for television -- are shown with the other examples at the end of this
section.
Sample radio PSA script -- live copy
Use: Imnediate: TFN
Time: 20 seconds
Agency: Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
Title: "Day of Compassion"
Main Point: Day of Compassion will be held June 20 Fifteen years ago, most people
thought it couldn't happen to them. Today we know better. AIDS has taken more
than 320,000 lives nationwide. It could happen to someone you love. Turn on your
radio or TV on June 20th and experience a Day of Compassion. It could save lives.
Be aware. Be safe. Be compassionate.
If you can get help from an outside professional or somebody who has
radio/television experience, this is a good time to do so. He or she can review your
work for you and offer suggestions. It won't take much time, since PSA's are so
short.

Pretesting your script is always a good idea. Find some people who are members of
your target audience, show them or let them read the script for the PSA, and ask
them for critical feedback. In addition to members of your target audience, you
might also want to ask health professionals and activists, teachers, and religious
leaders to take part in pretesting. It doesn't have to be a big, hairy, formal process.
Whatever amount of time you spend pretesting will almost always pay off in greater
effectiveness of your PSA.
Now you have a script that's ready to go! If you're just making live copy scripts, you
can skip the next part ("How do you produce a PSA?") and go directly on to "How do
you get your PSA on the air?" If you're going to be sending in a pre-recorded tape,
read on!
H O W D O YO U P R O D U C E A P S A ?
If you're planning on sending in a pre-recorded PSA, decide whether you should
produce it yourself or bring in outside help at this point. Generally, it's not a good
idea to produce it yourself unless you're sure you can do a professional-quality job.
Everyone has seen or heard at least a few badly produced local PSA's in their time;
you know it can negatively affect your opinion of an organization. If you can't be
certain you can do a genuinely good job of it, you shouldn't attempt to produce your
own PSA.
But don't despair! You can have a well-made PSA without going to the expense of
paying a professional television or radio production company. Find out if anyone in
your group has broadcasting experience. Approach area advertising agencies and
production companies to see if any of them would donate personnel, studio time, or
equipment for your PSA. Consider tapping into broadcasting students at any area
universities. They're hungry for the experience and most upperclassmen will have
had some formal training and experience.
As a last resort, you can pay a professional production or advertising company to
produce your script. You may be able to get a reduced rate for nonprofit agencies,
so be sure to ask about that possibility.

Tips for radio:

Finding professional announcers is helpful but not vital. Volunteers at

community or campus radio stations, people who read for the blind, and
storytellers are all experienced in doing voiceover work. Just keep your target
group in mind when choosing actors. People tend to respond better to those
who sound like they might be their approximate age and background.

In radio, your audience is usually doing at least one other thing in addition to
listening; driving, reading, partying, studying, working, gardening, cleaning,
etc. It's important to grab the audience's attention quickly and hold it.

Try to use short, arresting sentences aimed directly at the listener at the
beginning of the PSA to help grab their attention. For example: "Your heart
could be a ticking time bomb. Has one or both of your parents had heart
disease? If so, your chances of developing heart disease later in life are a lot
higher than for most people."

Tips for television:

You have to tell the TV staff exactly what you want them to film. You must
describe each shot in writing, and give the correct dialogue to go with that
shot.

Drama clubs, community theater groups, and the drama departments at your
local high schools and universities are great places to find talent, and most of
the members are eager for experience.

Consider using slide/announcer spots, because they're cheap and easy to

produce. In a slide/announcer spot, an announcer reads the script while 35mm slides are used for the visual portion of the PSA.

If you're producing a television spot yourself, make up a storyboard for your

script before you begin shooting. A storyboard shows sketches or photos of
each individual spot in a television piece. It helps the director figure out how

the entire piece will flow and what sort of camera angles and staging need to
be set up.

Avoid special effects. They're generally costly, and usually only distract
viewers from the message.

Chances are good that you can get help from your local community access cable TV
station. Many of them also offer free production courses, which could be useful to
you if you might be producing videos on a regular basis.
Many local cable TV stations also do "scrolls," or community-calendar type
announcements. Your message might also be included as one of these. The
announcement is often 25-50 words of copy, sometimes even less, and is often
written similarly to a radio PSA. Check with your cable TV station for details.
O V E RA L L T I P S
If you can afford to, make multiple PSA's so that the same one doesn't play over and
over. You don't want your audience to get sick of your message, so having different
versions of the same message, or several different PSA's with different messages, is
one way to mix things up and keep their attention. Keep it brief and simple! Focus
what you want the viewer to do or remember after they see or hear your PSA. Stick
to having only two or three main characters in the PSA to help your audience focus
on the message. Let the actors give you feedback and make suggestions on the
script. They will appreciate that you take their input seriously, and they often have
great ideas. When information changes (for example, with AIDS PSA's, where new
treatments are being developed all the time), change your PSA's as soon as
possible. Contact the station(s) playing it and get them to stop running old material,
and produce new PSA's with updated information as quickly as you can. Talk with
your actors and production staff about payment or donated time, and have a written
agreement in place before production begins.

H O W D O YO U G E T YO U R P S A O N T H E A I R ?
Different stations have different policies for PSA's. For example, in some small
communities, you can just call in your PSA by telephone. Other stations require the
PSA script, while others require a fully produced, ready-to-air version. Find out
ahead of time what their requirements are -- never send a PSA without knowing the
rules and guidelines of the station first. Stations also vary around maximum PSA
length and minimum advance notice. In other words, you want to know what the
local ground rules are before you take to the field.
RA D I O
It's generally a lot easier to get a PSA run on the radio than on television. Once
you're familiar with submission requirements, send your PSA, following station
guidelines. This will normally include a cover letter, along with any specific requests
or instructions.
Even if you've already talked to your contact on the phone or in person you should
take care to write a good cover letter when you send your PSA in. Mention previous
conversations with the contact, and any specific air times you've discussed. Be sure
to list any and all enclosed items or additional pages. And, most importantly, be
appreciative!

TELEVISION

Getting a PSA shown on television is highly competitive. It helps to make a personal

contact with someone on the station's staff. Call to find out who is in charge of
selecting which PSA's are run. Depending on the size of the market and the
structure of the particular station you're dealing with, your best contact person
could be the public affairs director, traffic director, program director, promotions
manager, or even the station manager.

Once you know who your contact should be, call and ask if you can make an
appointment to talk about the possibility of airing your PSA. Be on time, and bring
an air-ready copy of the PSA and the script as well as information on your

organization or initiative. It might help to bring proof of your group's tax exempt
status as well. If your contact is unfamiliar with your group, you may have to spend
the first few minutes explaining who you are and what you do.

Explain how the PSA fits into your overall media campaign, the goals of the
campaign, and how running it at the times you're asking for will help the campaign
be more effective. And of course, be gracious and professional at all times -- any
station that runs your PSA is doing you a favor, and if you come off as too pushy or
unappreciative it only hurts your chances of getting your PSA on the air.

ONCE YOU'VE GOTTEN APPROVAL FOR YOUR PSA

After you've gotten an agreement to run your PSA from a radio or television station,
find out the day and time that it will start playing. Your contact may not be the
same person who actually schedules the spots, so if necessary ask him or her who
is in charge of scheduling and then contact that person.

Listen to or watch the station for the first airing to make sure your PSA is shown
(and that it is shown correctly). Follow up by sending a thank you note and, if you
can, some small token of your gratitude, such as a certificate of appreciation or an
invitation to one of your group's events.

Do keep in mind that your spot might not run exactly at the time that your contact
says it will. PSA schedules are always subject to change.

HOW CAN YOU TELL IF YOUR PSA WAS EFFECTIVE?

The best way to judge effectiveness is to request a specific action, and then to
monitor the actions taken. For example, if you're requesting listeners to call a
number, then you measure the number of calls received before the PSA aired. The
same applies if you're asking for postcards.

Alternatively, if you were asking for attendance at an event, you could both
measure attendance and also ask those attending how they heard about the event,
and note the percent mentioning PSA's.

Once it's on the air, see if you can use the PSA to get more extensive media
coverage, such as a media story on your work, or being a guest on a panel show, or

possibly -- depending on the station and the media market -- being able to do a
radio editorial or getting editorial reply time. This is using the principal of leverage,
a very powerful principle in doing community work.

Finally, as noted before, pre-testing should help you figure out how effective a PSA
may or may not be.

Contributor
Chris Hampton
Online Resource

Family Health Institute (1997). Behavior change through mass communication.

How to Use Public Service Announcements, prepared by aspencsg.org.

How to Write a Public Service Announcement that is Worth Airing, Worth Hearing
and Worth Writing, by Kansas Association of Broadcasters, contains helpful
examples and is written in a friendly, conversational tone.

Tips for Creating a Public Service Announcement, by preventionlinks.org, includes

information on graphics, and on how to make a storyboard.

What is a Public Service Announcement?

Public Service Announcements (PSAs) are a type of advertising. Understanding the
elements that make this type of advertising effective is an important process of
creating an effective PSA. The quote cited above points out that commercials should
try to involve the viewer in the persuasive message while delaying the presentation
of information that identifies the message as persuasive. Any sample of
commercials or PSAs will shows this technique in action. Discuss with students the
claim that people are less likely to be manipulated by a message when they are
aware of its persuasive intent. When is this true and when is it not? What examples
can be used to support or refute this claim?
TRY THIS! ACTIVITY
Watch a sample of public service announcements and have a discussion to develop
a long list of all the elements that they have in common. For example:

1. Elements Of A PSA
short
goal is to change attitudes or behavior
use emotion
identifying tag for the organization or cause comes at the end
Then create a comparison contrast chart showing the similarities and differences
comparing public service announcements to commercials for products. See how
many different similarities and differences you can generate, using the example
below to get started:
2. How Are PSAs And Commercials Similar And Different?
There are many more similarities than differences. Both identify a specific target
audience, set measurable goals for the campaign, and design messages that use
attention-getting techniques. Commercials often have goal of increasing people's
awareness of the brand while PSAs often have goal of changing attitudes and
behaviors.
3. Frequently Asked Questions About PSAs
Q: What is a public service announcement (PSA)?
A: Public service announcements (PSAs) are commercials that are sponsored by a
non-profit organization to convey pro-social information to the public, or reinforce or
change attitudes about specific issues. Many private organizations sponsor their
own PSAs to raise awareness about the warning signs of stroke, for example, which
may be sponsored by a local hospital. A "get your dog spayed" PSA might be
sponsored by the local Humane Society. On MTV, the "Rock the Vote" campaign to
encourage youth voter registration was sponsored by a non-profit organization
which created PSAs featuring many popular musical artists and celebrities.
Q: Why are PSAs on television or in print media?
A: Television stations meet part of their responsibility to serve the needs of the
community by airing public service ads. This responsibility is stipulated by the FCC,
the Federal Communications Commission, which in 1934 declared that broadcasters
"should serve the public interest, convenience and necessity." Many non-profit and
social service agencies have discovered that advertising is an effective way to reach
large numbers of people, and can be highly effective in changing attitudes and
behaviors.
Q: Who decides how PSAs get broadcast or placed in print media?
A: Because the producers of a PSA do not pay for the time or in which the PSA is
aired, they cannot control when or how frequently it gets shown on TV or radio or
placed in a newspaper or magazine. Media outlets decide which types of PSAs are
appropriate for their target audience.
Q: When are PSAs aired?
A: Stations tend to place PSAs in time no one else has purchased. For example,

you'll see PSAs more often early in the morning or late at night, when few viewers
are watching. You may also see PSAs during the local evening news when stations
are trying to communicate their goodwill to community leaders. Each television
station decides to air PSAs individually. Networks and cable television channels also
make their own decisions about when, how often, and what type of PSAs to air.
Q: What is the Partnership for a Drug-Free America?
A: The Partnership for a Drug Free America is a private, non profit coalition of
professionals from the communications industry, whose collective mission is to
reduce demand for illicit drugs in America through media communication. More than
$2 billion in broadcast time and print space, and 400 anti-drug ads have been
donated in the ten years since the Partnership was founded.
Q: What kinds of criticisms have been made about PSAs?
A: Public service announcements are not without their critics. Some people have
noted that PSAs primarily frame issues in terms of individual behavior, like "what
you can do" about crime, pollution or drug use. PSAs rarely point out the importance
of actions that groups of people could take, or the importance of policies and laws in
helping solve social problems like crime, pollution or drug use.