Author Archive
The Advertising Community is Seeking to Change the World
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ACT – Advertising Community Together – is a non-profit association.
Its goal is to federate, promote and inspire responsible communication on sustainability, equitable development and social responsibility. ACT shows how advertising professionals from all continents can use their core talent – creativity – to play a significant role in addressing today’s crucial world issues. Read more about the mission of the organization.
ACT catalogs responsible advertising and exhibits the content online and through a traveling show.
- Online Gallery : ACT collections generates over a million downloads of responsible adverts each year.
- Exhibitions : every year, ACT’s collections go on a world tour. Exhibitions have already been shown in Paris, Cannes, London, Brussels, Barcelona, Warsaw, New York, Seattle, Santiago de Chile, Milan, Seoul and Beijing.
- Conferences : Launched in 2003 during Paris’ advertising week, the conferences foster discussion about ethics and values through debates between all parties concerned and the general public.
- Media : partnerships increase awareness and drive changes in professional and public behavior.
The ACT initiative was launched after 9/11 by AdForum’ s employees, using the global reach of the website to gather the talent of the global advertising community to fight violence and terrorism (“Still Shining, New York”, 2001), to fight discrimination and promote tolerance (with IFRC, the International Red Cross, 2002), to illustrate how advertising can promote good causes (“Great Ads for good causes”, 2003) to contribute to raise awareness on social issues (“Ads that make us change”, 2004) get society informed of what sustainable development is and why it’s essential to our future (“Great ads for a better future” 2005, “Taking care of our future”, 2006) tell everyone there is a time to meet and a time to act (“Together for a Sustainable World. The Advertising Community Promise” 2007), call for change (“The Expo that changes you from inside” 2008.
Take a look at the website. Browse the archives. Join the community.
Hulu Conducts Virtuous Advertising (Research)
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I was just at Hulu looking for something to watch and up pops an offer.
Can you help make Hulu’s advertising service better? In return you’ll be able to introduce 250 Hulu users to one of seven charities. Sounded interesting so I clicked through.
For answering “no more than 24 questions” about the advertising, Hulu let me choose to promote either UNCF, Big Brothers Big Sisters, EarthShare, The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinsons Research, Americans for the Arts, DonorsChoose, or Kiva.
I have not seen the specific ads Hulu is showing, so I did a little research. I searched Hulu and the Hulu community for more information, but found nothing. The only info I could find was a July 2009 post on ecorazzi, a blog on green gossip.
I wonder why Hulu is not promotiing their effort to support and promote charities. They are benefiting from the research participation, but it almost seems as if they are demonstrating altruism. If you see the ads, let me know and I will post them.
It is Random Acts of Kindness™ Week… Commit one now!
Posted by: | CommentsFrom the Good News newsletter of the Foundation for a Better Life…
It is Random Acts of Kindness™ Week
Feb 15-21, 2010
This week is the 15th annual Random Acts of Kindness™ Week! What will you do to spread Kindness?! Need ideas? Perhaps you could bake cookies for a neighbor, pay the toll for the vehicle behind you, send a card “just because,” or hold the door open for someone. To see more ideas or to share your own, check out our sister foundation, The Random Acts of Kindness™ Foundation, or their page on Facebook.
As demonstrated through the seminal Liberty Mutual ad… commit to an act of kindness today and see how long you can keep it up! You may inspire someone else or kindness may just become a lifelong habit 
You can make a difference today!
Censorship or a Higher Calling? Media Outlets and Political Ads
Posted by: | CommentsI love my favorite radio station, KLTY 94.9, because of the positive music and the positive messages. It touts itself as “Safe for the Whole Family” and it is… Then why my beef? Negative political ads are infringing on my time with God. 
On my drive to work this morning, I was confronted with all of the terrible thingsSenator Kay Bailey Hutchison has done in Washington. Was it investigative reporting? No, an ad by the campaign to re-elect our current Texas governor Rick Perry.
On a station that promotes such positivity in all aspects of the way it conducts business, does it have a policy about negative political ads? Does the parent company Salem Communications? Wouldn’t the world be a better place if media outlets could refuse such ads and force the politicians to promote their own positive agendas instead of just focusing on the negative aspects of their rivals. Is this censorship or a higher calling?
Gov Perry and Sen. Hutichison…Please focus on what YOU can do for Texas as you have in other positive ads!
The Children ARE Watching
Posted by: | CommentsI saw this ad in church while listening to a sermon on parenting. I am still watching my behavior…
Where are these ads in the US and why is the US government not more active in promoting social values?
Advertising done well makes poeple think, change their attitudes, and can ultimately affect behavior. What did you show a child today?
I wanted to get a new one, but…
Posted by: | CommentsA broken gate remote control receiver. A new one for $64 retail. A discount one online for $22.
Easy choice, right? A class discussion about our throw-away society got me thinking about easy chocies, so I took a moment to open up the receiver. Looking at the circuit board I immediately noticed the antenna wire barely hanging on. Taking out my trusty soldering iron took less than 15 seconds to fix the problem. Putting the gate opener back together took another 5 minutes and viola!
Not everything gets thrown away, but many times it just seems easier to buy a new one. Where are the ads that encourage people to think, to question, to just try another path? Please comment if you see one or remember one from the past.
Check out some good news at values.com!
Posted by: | CommentsThis amazing collection of ads, stories, and inspirational quotes shows all of us how to be better than we are. The site highlights values to which we should all aspire and in doing so is making the word a better place. Kudos to the private foundation!
I challenge everyone to sample an ad or two and not be changed… Click any image below.
DVDs and sample posters are available from the foundation here.
Above the Influence
Posted by: | CommentsI just saw a television ad for abovetheinfluence.com. The website has both television and print ads focused on helping people take a stance against drugs. They have a place to ask questions and connect with other teens and ask a doctor question. It seems the campaign attempts to drive people to site and to make poeople look at their current behaviors in new ways. See the print ad – “Wasp” where one wasp offers another some bug spray. Yuck!
You can’t just throw your friends away! – disposableboy
Tyler Perry has a Dream of Inspirational TV and Inspirational Ads
Posted by: | CommentsI have heard of the show Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, but never seen it. What I did not realize was that this 39 year old was living in his car and now ranks as Forbes’42nd most influential Hollywood celebrity.
I just saw him on an interview on CNN and he shared his dream – to own a cable network. What interested me was when he said, “whether people watch for five minutes or five hours they will be inspired – Through both the programming and the commercials!”
An entire network available for uplifting advertising? I am rooting for you Mr Perry! Go for it.
